Legend of the Chosen
by WolfPrincess22
Summary: Nicole and her sisters have been going to Hogwarts for the past four years, and they find themselves getting caught in the drama of being 15 as well as finding out who they really are. Rated M for language and hinted adult content. Mostly OC's.
1. First Days Always Suck

_Author's Note: The original idea for the girls to be fourth-years didn't fit the story, so now they are a year older. If you see any fourth-year reference (referring to them), let me know. Thanks!_

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__Chapter 1_

_Nicole_

"Last night I had a really weird dream," said my sister, Victoria, who was looking at me with interest.

I smiled at her and asked, "what was it about?"

Victoria opened her mouth again, and I wished I hadn't asked her that. Victoria talked…a lot. Sometimes, I wondered if she talked just to hear her voice. I knew she was going to go off on one of her caffeine fueled sermons, and I had brought it upon us. Why couldn't I just ignore her like everyone else in that car?

One of my other sisters, Suzanne looked up from her insanely large book, and shook her head at me. She knew what I did too.

"I dreamt that mutant Chihuahuas were chewing on my toes," Victoria said, surprising us all with the small amount of talking she did.

"Cool," said Tamora, who was listening to her Ipod.

"No one gives a shit," said the one person who always said what everyone else was thinking: Wolfgang.

I tried to hold back a laugh, but failed miserably.

"Shame," Victoria told Wolfgang. It was her response whenever one of us swore.

My name is Nicole. I'm an orphan, like the rest of my family, which consists of me and my eight sisters who aren't actually related to me in any way. I've just lived with them my whole life in a huge house run by Ruth, who was practically our mother, but she was old enough to be our grandmother.

A few years prior to this, we'd all gotten letters in the mail from no one, and come to find out we'd all been accepted into some sort of school called "Hogwarts."

"What's a _Hogwarts_?" Emilina had said. She wasn't the brightest light bulb in the box.

No one had had an answer for her, but Ruth did. She had sat us all down and told us the truth: we were witches, and our parents had all been witches and wizards. They all attended Hogwarts to learn magic and potions and stuff. The only sad part was that Ruth was a human (muggle), and I felt instantly more distant from her from then on.

We were all excited as hell to be going, and it took a little while for us all to realize something: we weren't freaks.

All our lives, strange crap just happened to happen to us. Like one time when Victoria ran into a wall and said "gay wall." She had then backed away slowly and ran off. She later told us that the wall had replied, "who you calling _gay_?"

And then there was the time where Suzanne (always short) was trying to reach a book at the very top shelf at a book store. She reached for it, and the book seemed to jump out of the bookshelf into her hand. Needless to say, she bought the book.

Anyway, all of us had had strange experiences with magic, and we never knew.

Now here we were in Ruth's minivan (how we all ever fit in that thing, I'll never know), heading to that huge train station in London to go to Hogwarts for the fifth year in a row.

"You guys," Rosalyn said, bringing me back to the present, "I wonder what would happen if we showed a couple of muggles this checklist." She was holding up her checklist (also from Hogwarts). She slumped back into her seat behind mine, her dark hair draped over her shoulders.

"They'd be freaked out," I said.

"Probably," Rosalyn agreed.

It was no mistake that Rosalyn was pretty. Her hair was the only thing dark about her appearance. Her skin was pale, and blemish-free, and her eyes were deep blue and longing. I wished I looked like her, but all I had going for me was my tan skin and long blonde hair. Rosalyn was also a little taller than me, making us the tallest ones in this strange family we had.

"The stuff they ask us to bring gets weirder and weirder every flipping year," Victoria said with a groan.

Victoria, I may never admit to her, was beautiful. She had pale skin like everyone but me and Kherington, but her cheeks were rosy. Her hair was light brown, and lightly brushed her shoulder blades. Her eyes were crystal blue and had a sense of power in the way they looked.

"And no the muggles would think we made the list up ourselves," Victoria said.

"Victoria, haven't you learned your lesson yet?" Kherington asked, the only Chinese girl in our family, "not everything has a logical explanation."

"No," Victoria replied, "I will never stop until I find something that has a logical explanation."

"That's gonna be a long wait," I said, always the smart-ass.

Everyone cracked up except for Victoria, who looked at me with a glare that said _don't you have anything better to do_?

It made me laugh harder, which made Ruth step in.

"Nicole, love," she said, "be nice to Victoria."

"Yes, Ruth," I said with a slight edge in my voice. She didn't seem to hear it.

"I thought it was funny," Wolfgang said, who had the passenger seat. We all had to get up early, and Wolfgang was in an especially bad mood. All of us were happy to give up the passenger seat when she asked for it.

"It wasn't nice, Wolfgang, dear," Ruth said. And yes, she always called us _love _and _dear_. It was just in her personality.

"I want you girls to be on your best behavior at Hogwarts," Ruth continued. "It's a very prestigious school, and believe me, if you do something bad, I'll know about it." She said the same thing every year.

"We know," Ravyn said.

Ravyn was Goth, much to Ruth's displeasure, but the rest of us didn't care. Her hair was naturally black and long, which was almost a perfect contrast to her nearly white skin. Her eyes were hazel, always changing.

Tamora turned off her Ipod and put it in her pocket. "We're almost there," she said. Tamora had been born with a weird sense of direction. She could tell where any place was, which made her a human GPS.

"How much _longer_?" Wolfgang asked her twin, her brown eyes sagging.

"Only about ten minutes," Tamora answered.

Tamora and Wolfgang were the only ones that were related to each other. While they both had the same shade of brown hair and pale skin, Tamora had long, straight hair, and Wolfgang's was shortened with a red stripe on one side of her bangs. Tamora also had sea-green eyes like me.

In the corner of my eye, I noticed a hand coming slowly toward my face. I grabbed it with lightning speed and glared at Emilina, its owner.

"What the fuck?" I said rather loudly.

Emilina just smiled at me blankly, which only made me madder. I loved her, but man could she annoy me. She started to giggle, and I threw her hand away from me. She didn't care that I was mad. That's what made it fun to her.

Upon hearing me swear, Victoria quickly yelled out, "Shame, Nicole, shame."

I rolled my eyes.

Ruth never said anything because she may be old, but she was cool about that type of thing. She knew we were young and would grow out of swearing when we got older.

"I wonder what kind of pranks we can pull this year, Wolfgang," Ravyn said, smiling.

"Probably a whole bunch," Wolfgang said with a fake evil laugh.

I knew exactly what they were thinking. Ravyn and Wolfgang were nearly inseparable, and the two of them were always dreaming up new pranks. I'd had my fair share of them myself.

"Guys, we're here," Tamora said just as we were pulling up to the London Train Station. I didn't know if it was actually called that, but if it was points for me!

We went in a group, with me as the head. I was the oldest, so I was the self-appointed guide on this little adventure. We felt a little weird since we were the only people pushing carts filled with all sorts of supplies plus owls in cages who never got the concept of silence. Suzanne's cat, Tunie, also made a fuss.

We walked until we came to a spot in-between platform nine and platform ten.

I glanced around, and noticed a rather large, kind of hairy man coming toward us.

I smiled huge and ran for him yelling "Hagrid!" at the top of my lungs. Everyone but Wolfgang, Ravyn, and Suzanne followed me. Those three weren't very big on hugs.

Hagrid wrapped his hairy arms around us, just as happy to see us as we were to see him.

"I swear," Hagrid said, "you young ones get bigger and bigger every time I see you."

"So do you," Wolfgang called.

"Wolfgang," Hagrid said, coming over to her, "always the kidder." If only she were.

He shook her hand, which was routine.

"Suzanne," he said, looking at her. "Lovely as ever I see."

Suzanne smiled without showing teeth. She didn't seem like she cared much if he was there or not, but her rich brown eyes sparkled, and I could tell she was glad to see him.

He turned to us once more.

"Emilina," he said, "you don't have glasses anymore."

"Contacts," Emilina beamed. I had to admit, her brown eyes popped out more now.

He glanced over the rest of us, "yes, I do think that you all are coming along nicely."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Victoria put her hands on her hips.

"You're growing up," Hagrid answered.

"That tends to happen," I said, making everyone including Hagrid laugh.

"Glad to see you've still got your sense of humor, Nicole," Hagrid laughed some more.

"I'm sorry to say this," Ruth said, "but the girls will miss their train if they don't get a move on soon."

""Oh yes, you are absolutely right, Miss Ruth," Hagrid said. "I apologize for not saying hello to you earlier."

"Hagrid, you don't have to say that to me," Ruth said. They were old friends.

After each one of us gave Ruth a hug (even Suzanne, Ravyn, and Wolfgang), we all faced the wall of platform nine and ten. One by one, we charged at it, and one by one we ran through the wall. It felt like running through a wall of water, only you came out dry on the other side. We were there at platform nine and three-quarters.

At a small distance away sat a regal black train with the name "Hogwarts Express" written on the side. We made our way to the boarding dock and waited for one of those little guys who work in the train to come out and tell us to board.

We looked around the ever-growing group of kids for anyone we recognized. There were the Weasleys with Harry Potter. Draco Malfoy was some distance away, and I noticed Wolfgang's eyes sway when she saw him. It was a secret to everyone but me and Ravyn that she liked him. Hermione Granger came up and started talking to Suzanne about some dumb book before she went back to Harry Potter and Ron Weasley.

Finally, someone came up to us that we were actually happy to see. Winifred (Winnie) Solis was in Ravenclaw (the house where all the smart people were) and a sixth year. She knew more about potions than any other student and was Professor Snape's (the Potions Master) pride and joy. She came right up to Kherington and hugged her.

"I'm glad to see you again, Kherington," she said happily, tossing her blonde hair behind her shoulders.

"Good to see you too, Winnie," Kherington said.

"Snape still have the hots for you, Winnie?" I asked, being my hilarious self once again. Since Winnie was Snape's apprentice, I always liked to tease her.

Winnie laughed slightly, "I assure you it's just a business relationship, Nicole."

"Sure…_business_," I smiled slyly.

"I'm serious," Winnie laughed.

"Oh, so he really does pay you," I said, now just making things up.

"Really, Nicole. You can stop now," Tamora said, being the voice of reason.

"Fine," I said, a little peeved.

Almost as soon as I said it, one of those little dudes on the train told us to board, so we did. Of course, we couldn't all fit in one compartment, so we shared two. Suzanne, Victoria, Tamora, and I were in one car while Rosalyn, Ravyn, Wolfgang, Kherington, and Emilina shared the other.

When the train started moving, I could feel the tension building in the car.

"You guys," I said, "we've done this three times already. You don't have to be nervous." I had a weird ability to sense emotions.

"I know, but I can't help it," Victoria whined, "what if I fail every class? Oh, Ruth would have a fit if that happened. Then I'd have to live with muggles for the rest of my life, and never wear good shoes again, not to mention the bad health coverage I'll be forced to have…"

She kept on talking. The rest of us chose to ignore her. She didn't seem to notice.

When an attendant lady came by with a cart of sweet stuff, we got the whole cart because if Harry Potter could do it, then by god we could too. Besides, we could really eat. We told them to charge it on Ruth since they all knew her, and that's what she'd told us to do when we were first-years.

"If you need to buy anything," Ruth had said. "Anything at all, you tell them to charge it to Ruth. They all know who I am."

We always did, no matter what it was. Maybe Ruth had a secret stash lying around that old manor we didn't know about. Whatever the case, the charging thing was very convenient.

Suzanne and Victoria started with the pastries while Tamora and I went straight for the fattening stuff. Tamora quickly grabbed a bag of jelly beans, while I was successful in eating one of those chocolate hopping frog things.

"You know," I said, leaning back on the red bench I sat on. "Life is good for us today."

"I second that," said Suzanne.

"Me too," added Victoria.

"I like cheese," said Tamora.

"We know," we all said to her.

The next few hours were filled with mindless babble about absolutely nothing in particular. We were just happy to be able to talk. Somewhere in that timeframe, Tamora started spazzing about one of the jelly beans she ate.

"What, did you get a vomit one or something?" Suzanne asked.

"No," Tamora said.

"Dirt?"

"No."

"Black licorice?"

"No."

"Broccoli?"

"No."

"What then?" Suzanne gave up.

"Cheese."

Suzanne slapped her forehead. What other flavor could it have possibly been other than cheese?

Eventually, the train stopped. It was dark outside and everyone was getting sleepy, especially Emilina, who enjoyed sleep.

Hagrid was there when we got off, as he was every year. He was in charge of getting the first-years to Hogwarts though, so we didn't go with him. We went by ourselves.

For some strange reason, they never seemed to run out of those boats that went across the lake to the magnificent yet somehow foreboding castle that was Hogwarts. I didn't fear anything in that lake, but I could definitely feel that some of the other kids did. I looked down at the murky waters as if I'd see something. I didn't.

Once we reached the castle, we were lead once again through the large wooden doors of Hogwarts. I would describe it, but Hogwarts never changes.

We were led into the Great Hall where everyone but the first-years was already seated. We (the fifth-years) spread out among our houses' tables. Suzanne, Victoria, and I went to Gryffindor. Rosalyn, Ravyn, Wolfgang, and Tamora went to Slytherin. Kherington went to Ravenclaw. Emilina went to Hufflepuff.

I felt a little bad when we couldn't eat together, but it couldn't be helped. A little time later, the first-years came in and made their way toward to High Table for the Sorting Ceremony. Professor McGonagall brought out the Sorting Hat, and like it always did, it sang that song. I'd repeat them here, but the lyrics are too horribly tacky for anyone to handle. I certainly had a hard time. I clapped when he was done however, being the gentlewoman I was (say nothing!).

The Sorting Ceremony began, and that was _really_ boring. It isn't quite so much when you're a first-year, but to everyone else, it's a waste of our fucking time. But it was good to have new people in Gryffindor, no matter how smallish and annoying they may be. What can I say, people annoy me.

After an extremely spaced out Sorting Ceremony, it was time for the thing everyone _really_ came to Hogwarts for: free food!

Dumbledore said a few of his magical words, and up popped every type of food you can imagine. The eating started innocently enough until the Weasley twins started fighting about whether white meat or dark meat was better.

"White meat is better," George said.

"No dark." Fred said.

"White meat is healthier," George said.

"Which is exactly why dark meat is better," Fred said.

Rosalyn (who had amazing hearing) piped up and yelled, "Dark meat is pig ass!" It made everyone crack up except for the first-years who didn't find anything funny.

Victoria promptly shouted out, "shame!"

"Suzanne. Victoria," I said, "see anyone you like?"

They knew what I was asking, but I didn't expect them to have any answers. Suzanne and Victoria weren't exactly the type of girls that _crushed_ on guys. They didn't pay much attention to the ones around them. But this time, I was making them.

Victoria didn't take long at all. She glanced around the Gryffindor table and stared. The girl was besotted in an instant. Her eyes became droopy and she blushed. Realizing I was watching her, she looked away, toward her food.

"No one," she said a little too quickly. Suzanne and I knew.

Suzanne looked too, but I could tell in her eyes that she still wasn't _looking_. She looked at me once more and shrugged.

"You're hopeless," I told her.

She smiled at me, revealing her pointed canines that hinted German origins.

We both focused our attention on Victoria.

"Spill," we both said in unison.

Victoria looked at us as if we might kill her. She knew we knew.

"Spill what?" she was playing dumb.

"Don't do that, Kola." I said, calling her by her last name, which she hated. I sometimes called her Coke a' Kola.

"Don't call me that, Wilkinson," she ranted back, using _my_ last name, which I hated.

"Victoria," Suzanne spoke calmly, "tell us who you think is cute."

"I don't," Victoria said.

"We know you're lying," I said, "We saw it in your eyes."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Victoria," Suzanne said, "you're using that in the wrong way."

"Alright!" Victoria nearly shouted, "it's him." She glanced across the tables.

"Which one?" I asked.

"The one in front of the mutant bird thing."

I looked toward where she said. Yep, there definitely was a mutant bird thing placed on a platter on the table. No one was eating it, thank God. I might've lost it. Placed in front of this mutant bird was none other than…_Ron Weasley_?

I looked away instantly, focusing on Victoria, "really, Victoria?"

"Yes, unfortunately," she answered.

Suzanne saw now, and she gave us her disgusted face. She was really good at those.

"Stop that," I said, slapping her shoulder in a kidding way.

She smiled at me and laughed, but then she shook her head at Victoria.

"Have you gone off the deep end?" Suzanne asked her.

"The heart wants what the heart wants."

"You sound like a love-struck school girl," I said.

"Because I am."

"_WHAT?_" Suzanne and I both shouted at her.

"I've liked him for the past three years," Victoria confessed.

"Do you even know him?" Suzanne asked.  
"Yes," Victoria nodded. "He was in all of my classes those years, I wonder how that happened, and we became good friends."

"How come you never told us?" I asked.

"You never asked."

"We shouldn't have to."

Victoria stuck her tongue out at me.

I did it back.

We then ate for the remainder of dinner. Once done, all of the kids got up, and went to their common rooms. When we passed by the other houses, we waved at our family and some other people we recognized. We eventually broke off on the stairs toward the seventh floor, where Gryffindor Tower was. Whoever's bright idea it was to make it so damn far away was either a complete ass or drunk as hell. We made it there okay, since the staircases decided to be nice and not change overly much.

Once we made it to the painting of the lady who thought it was hilarious to change the password ever ten minutes, someone said to her, "pandemonium." She opened, and everyone walked inside. Guess that was the new password.

Even thought it was only eight o'clock, everyone went straight to their rooms except for us. Suzanne planted herself in a huge red velvet armchair with a book while Victoria and I played wizard chess.

For those of you that don't know, wizard chess is exactly the same as regular chess, only the pieces are alive, and you tell them where to go. Victoria was always white; I thing she wanted to keep up her 'I'm so cute and innocent' demeanor. The fact that her chess pieces (who never forgot anyone) loved her while mine tolerated me didn't help minimize it.

Victoria was also one of the best wizard chess players in Hogwarts. She had asked Professor McGonagall if she could start a wizard chess club, and surprisingly she said no. No one loved wizard chess more than Professor McGonagall.

As we played, it was soon pretty obvious who would win. Victoria played with skill and determination, always three steps ahead of me. In other words, she was whipping my ass.

When the overly embarrassing game ended, I let out a "damn" of defeat, which Victoria answered with a "shame."

Someone clapped from the stairs, increasingly getting louder as they got closer. We all (including Suzanne) looked up to see none other than Angelina (Angie) De La Court, one of our two roommates.

Angie's family, the De La Courts, was the biggest wizard family in the world. They were extremely wealthy, talented, and widely spread out. Angie was one of many De La Courts at Hogwarts. You could tell them apart from the Red Crescent moon they wore in some form or another. Angie wore hers in a choker around her neck.

She walked all the way down the stairs and came right up to Victoria, hugging her.

"I'm so happy to see you again, Victoria," she said with a voice like velvet.

"You too," Victoria said, hugging her back.

When they let go, Angie hugged me, and then went for Suzanne. Surprising everyone, she let Angie hug her.

"Good game," Angie said. "I saw the whole thing from the stairs."

Great. Another witness to my disgrace.

"I still haven't gotten any better," I said.

"You'll get there," Suzanne reassured, making me smile.

Angie flipped her long dark brown hair over her shoulder, and motioned toward the stairs, "we should probably get up there before McGonagall gets back." She didn't have to tell us twice.

In our room, our stuff was all there, next to our beds, which had been ours since we were first-years.

The first thing I did was let out my snowy white owl, Azrael. He ruffled his feathers, looked toward the window expectantly. I opened it, and he flew out with haste toward the Owlery. Suzanne and Victoria did the same with their owls, Triston and Räel.

Suzanne then let out her black cat, Tunie, who was clearly not happy about being in her carrier for so long. "I'm sorry," Suzanne told her. "I thought they'd let you out."

Tunie didn't believe her. She meowed in an angry tone and hopped on Suzanne's bed, asleep instantly.

"Damn cat," I muttered, only half-joking.

"Shame," Victoria said.

"Is it even humanly possible that you'll quit that?" I asked.

"Probably not."

"Well, I'm tired of hearing it."

"I'm tired of hearing you _swear_."

"I do it mostly to make you mad."

"You're definitely succeeding."

"Will you two please end the fighting," said a familiar voice coming from the doorway. Victoria and I both shut up.

Éponine Savoy, our other roommate, stood there, eyeing both of us. I hadn't even heard her come in.

Her hair was still brown, straight, and long as ever. Her brown eyes were thoughtful, always seeking more knowledge. She never drank anything but water, nor ate anything but healthy stuff. She was really good with Herbology, and was Professor Sprout's unofficial apprentice. She was also the person to go to if you had any questions about magical creatures. Her bed was closest to the window, since she always had plants on its sill. She shook her head disapprovingly at Victoria and I then went to her bed to unpack.

We all took her lead, and started unpacking. That didn't take long, since we kept most of our things in our trunks anyway. Now, I may never admit this to Éponine, but I was fascinated by her. She was so different from everyone else I've ever met. I wanted to know her so badly, and I often found myself thinking about her more than I ought to. Somehow, I felt as if she wanted to know me too, but who's to say that's true. If she did want to know me, she was too quiet to say anything, as was I. Maybe it was just an unspoken awareness that kept us wanting to know more. Of course I'd spoken to her, but we'd never been close. Maybe this year I would change all that.

After we were sure everyone was done unpacking, Angie brought out her secret weapon: her Ipod speakers. I wished I had thought of that. We all brought our own IPods, but no one thought to bring speakers. Oh well, we could probably score some if we ever went to London.

Angie plugged it in (think God Hogwarts had some electric wiring) and Suzanne didn't hesitate to put in her Ipod. The girl could read better than all of us put together, but she loved her music too.

We were quiet with is, since we weren't technically allowed to have the speakers at all. Suzanne turned on one of her favorite songs: _Monsoon _by _Tokio Hotel_. It was one of my favorites too, so I instantly started dancing to it alone. No one else danced with me. Angie liked to dance, but she was always tired around this time, so it didn't bother me too much. Victoria eyed me, clearly not amused by my 'much too sexy' moves, as she would call them. Susanne didn't even look, which I found especially hilarious. Éponine was unfazed by me and the music. Her nose was stuck in a book. At that moment, she kind of reminded me of Suzanne.

I eventually stopped, giving in to exhaustion and Victoria's glares. She and I were like the best friends who were always at each other's throats. Suzanne was the 'fence' who kept us from killing each other.

Angie turned off the speakers reluctantly and handed Suzanne's Ipod back. I saw Éponine look out the window briefly then look back at us.

"It's nearly 11," she said. She could tell the time just by looking at the moon or the sun. I wish I could do that, but then again, I probably didn't have the patience to learn.

"We should probably sleep," Suzanne said, tucking the Ipod into her trunk, well hidden.

"Yeah," I said, yawning. I hadn't realized how tired I was. We all crawled into our beds, mine in-between Éponine and Suzanne. I thought I would feel nervous for the next day, but I didn't. In fact, I didn't feel anything at all. Not happiness or sadness, anxiety or calmness. I liked it.

I smiled to myself, before letting to darkness of sleep take me.


	2. Classes at Hogwarts are Like Hell

_Chapter 2_

_Ravyn_

I woke up the next morning way too early for a normal person. How could I not when the only roommate outside my family (Margaret Blaylock) was snoring up a storm. It was impossible. I looked around at my sleeping sisters to see if anyone else was up. I opened my mouth in what must've looked like a disgusted face at them all. The bitches all had _earplugs!_ And they didn't think to offer me any! That was it; I was _so _gonna hog the Apple Jacks at breakfast.

I decided that trying to get back to sleep was a waste of time, so I crept out of the room, and down the dark corridor towards the common room. Slytherin House was in the dungeons, right underneath the lake. I always kind of wished that they had windows so we could see what kind of weird-ass monsters swam in that thing.

I made it to the Slytherin Common Room. The Slytherin coat of arms hung above a fireplace that was still ablaze. Two green velvet armchairs faced it. I walked inside, finally noticing how cold the silver stones of the dungeon floor made my bare feet. I walked along the perimeter of the Common Room for no particular reason and stopped dead in front of a mirror hanging on the wall. I barely ever looked in a mirror, but for some reason, I seemed different then I remembered myself looking. The warm glow of the fire sent half of my face visible, but the other remained in shadow. I stared at my reflection as if it were another person. My black hair was longer, my skin paler. The pudginess in my cheeks that I remembered was gone, leaving behind a slim jaw line and high cheekbones. My hazel eyes looked nearly black in the dim light, but I could tell they were strong. This was all strange for me. I had never given much thought to my appearance before, but it seemed almost…pretty.

"Came here just to look at your reflection, did you?"

I jerked around toward the open entryway were a boy I'd never seen before stood. I could see only half of him in the firelight, but what I could see was _hot_! He was tall, much taller than me, and his hair was dark like mine, but it reached the nape of his neck and was very shaggy, but in a cute way. I could tell that his eyes were naturally dark. Don't ask me how, I just did.

This guy looked at me with curiosity for a minute until I realized I was standing here in a black spaghetti-strap shirt and black pajama pants with skulls and cross-bones all over them. Talk about embarrassing.

He was dressed in black pajama pants like me, but he wore a black tank top. Yep, total hunk.

"No, I was just…"

"It's okay," he walked toward me, his hand outstretched. "I'm Aiden Calvert."

When he reached me, I took his warm hand in my ice cold one, "Ravyn Alcina."

"Are you cold, Ravyn Alcina?" he asked in a super-sexy voice.

"No," I kind of lied. "I'm fine."

"Why are you here in the middle of the night, then?" he asked.

"One of my roommates snores."

"I see," he laughed. It was a sexy laugh, too. Was everything about this guy sexy? Definitely.

"Why are _you_ here in the middle of the night?" I asked.

"I'm more of a night-owl."

"Me too," I said. "I get my best ideas at night."

It occurred to me that he was still holding my hand.

"You're cold," he said. "We should talk more in front of the fire."

I walked over to the one armchair closest to me, instantly feeling warmer so close to the blaze. Aiden sat in the armchair next to mine.

"I wonder how this fire keeps going all night," I said.

"It's probably enchanted to never go out," Aiden said, smiling.

Well, _duh!_ I felt stupid for saying it, but he didn't seem to notice.

"How old are you, Ravyn?" Aiden asked. The question didn't make me feel awkward like it would if anyone else had asked.

"Fifteen," I answered.

"Sixteen," was his reply.

"Do you have other siblings that go here?"

"No. You?"

"My eight sisters."

"Eight?"

I found that funny, so I giggled in that high pitched way I always had. It never bothered me until now. Damn genes.

"Yeah, but we're not related. We've just lived together our whole lives."

"You must be close," Aiden's eyes were warm now, but they didn't lose any of the darkness. It soothed me.

"I'm closer to some more than others," I said.

"That's how it is with everyone."

"Do you have any siblings at all?"

"One brother."

"Are you close?"

His voice cracked, "yeah."

"Are you okay?" I asked. He almost seemed upset.

He looked away from me, "I'm suddenly tired. I have to go." And with that, he hopped up out of the armchair and left. I looked after him, craning my head to see him leave. I didn't know for sure, but it could've sworn I saw a tear run down his cheek.

Hours later, I felt a gentle shake on my shoulder. I'd gone back to bed a few minutes after Aiden had left, thankful that Margaret had stopped snoring. Whenever we made it to London, I was gonna buy some earplugs.

"Ravyn," I heard Rosalyn whisper.

I fluttered my eyes a bit. She sat at the corner of my bed almost in a mothering way. It was a new characteristic for her. Rosalyn had an amazing internal clock that always woke her at seven a.m. We never had to have an alarm with her around.

"I'm up," I managed to croak, my eyes bitching from their lack of sleep.

Rosalyn smiled, and moved on to Tamora, leaving Wolfgang's bed (which was next to mine) alone. We all knew how to wake her, but we liked to save her for last because we could run away then.

Tamora took a few minutes since she was a heavy sleeper, but Rosalyn managed. I woke up Margaret, who was easier to wake. We all knew the drill now. We grabbed a stereo that Margaret had brought, and put in a CD that Rosalyn had burned with one song on it. We put it next to Wolfgang's bed, and turned the volume to max. We grabbed our bags of toiletries we'd been sure to pack, and waited. Rosalyn crept over to the stereo and pressed Play.

_Barbie Girl _by _Aqua _rang loud and clear through the halls. As soon as it started, we ran like hell. We would go to the Common Room, up the stairs to the main floor of Hogwarts, all the way to the bathroom on that floor, where we usually brushed our teeth in the mornings. Memories rushed through me as I ran, enjoying the freedom of this first morning back at Hogwarts. The song was like our welcoming to everyone, since probably everyone in Slytherin could hear it.

When we made it to the bathroom, we collapsed to the floor, laughing. This was our favorite thing to do in the morning, hopefully making the first-years laugh. I doubted it.

Once we stopped laughing, we went to business: brushing our teeth, brushing our hair, using the restroom, the usual girl stuff, all the while laughing to ourselves.

Rosalyn noticed something. "Guys," she said. "We forgot a change of clothes." Oh, shit!

After we were done, we waited for a few extra minutes before going back to Slytherin. We tip-toed down the steps of the dungeon, which probably looked stupid to the students in the Common Room, but it would ensure our safety. Once down the steps, we began walking normally; we would look suspicious to the other Slytherins.

Once in our room, we knew she was awake since the stereo was off. We didn't see her at first, not until she said, "looking for someone?"

We all jerked around. She leaned against the wall next to the door. It was the kind of stance I would expect to see her take out a cigarette. It was all casual.

Wolfgang eyed us, jeans and a t-shirt on, but her hair a mess. It was probably for dramatic effect. She began walking toward us with a look of death on her face. Again, oh shit!

"Now, Wolfgang," Rosalyn began, trying to calm her down. "It was a playful joke. We didn't mean anything by it. It was funny." We started fake laughing to help Rosalyn out. Wolfgang had reached us by now, and it surprised us when she started laughing herself. It was very exaggerated though, and I knew it was a fake laugh too.

She did that for a few seconds until she stopped and said, "fuck you." Her humor was all gone. She glared at us once more than walked out. I knew Wolfgang better than most people. The girl liked to _pull_ pranks, but she hated to _receive_ them. I think everyone did.

We really did start laughing now. Wolfgang may not like a lot of things, but she certainly wasn't vengeful. That was one of the reasons I liked her so much. I, on the other hand, was very keen on revenge, and she always calmed me down. Unless I had a prank in mind; she was always on board for those.

People started walking the hallways, going to the Great Hall for breakfast. As if on cue, my stomach growled, sending everyone into giggle fits.

While walking down the hallway, we couldn't help but notice Bree De La Court. Mostly because she treated the hallway like a fucking runway, and strutted instead of walked. She was a sixthyear, always the center of attention. Her hair was long and dark brown. Her skin was tan, but it didn't look fake, but then again even if it _was_ fake, it wouldn't look it on her. Bree knew she was pretty, and she used it to her own advantage. She walked passed us, and as she went, she raised her petite little eyebrow at me.

I would've snapped if Rosalyn hadn't been holding my shoulder. I wanted to punch her, but I knew that was overreacting. At the time, however, I didn't care.

"The girl's, _dead_!" I said through my teeth.

"Ravyn, it's fine," Tamora said. "It's just Bree."

"I know, and that's what pisses me off," I said. "I'm tired of her acting all high-and-mighty."

"I don't think you can help that," Margaret said.

"Yeah," Tamora said. "You can't change ignorance."

"I guess, but that bitch really just _pisses me off_," I said.

"We know," everyone else said in unison.

We went to the Great Hall laughing. Most of the people were already there, the food magic-ed up. True to my word, I wouldn't let any of the girls have the Apple Jacks.

"Why not?" Rosalyn asked, trying her puppy eyes at me.

"Because you guys all had earplugs and didn't give me any."

'That's because we brought them ourselves. We didn't have any extra. You were supposed to bring some too," Rosalyn pointed out. I now remembered that.

"Oh yeah," I said, feeling like a complete dumb-ass.

We ate for a while, Wolfgang (who was sitting next to me) brainstorming ideas for pranks. Some of them we would probably do: sending Neville Longbottom a fake love letter from Christina Aguilera was a good one, putting a sign on Snape's office door that read "It's called _shampoo_," finding the intercom that no one but Flitch knew where it was, and saying "Luke, I am your _mother_" very loud into it. And those were just a few.

Wolfgang and I were pretty much laughing evilly the whole time, probably making everyone nervous. Oh well, it was probably better that way.

After we were done eating, it was time for classes. I didn't really care about any of them except for Potions, but that wasn't until the end of the day. I was also pissed cause I had to wear robes over my normal clothes. And they're _really_ cute.

Here's an overview of my day:

Herbology: a class that has no meaning whatsoever other than the fact that Professor Sprout is a good prank target.

Defense Against The Dark Arts: a class that's meant to make you feel like the wizard world is a dangerous place. Plus, Professor Carrow didn't know shit.

Muggle Studies: Basically human history. No wizard or witch wants to hear about human history. What's the point?

Transfiguration: The class where you can pretend you're Houdini.

Arithmancy: Wizard math.

And finally, Potions: the class that everyone is always in, and the one class where we can openly discuss things. Snape is mostly dead to everything but Winnie Solis anyway.

The classes following Potions were uneventful. I found myself fidgeting more and more when the time for Potions class got closer and closer.

When it eventually _was_ time for Potions, I couldn't get out of the classroom fast enough. I think Professor Vector was a little taken aback.

In Potions, it was the same as every year. All the main people were there: Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and the Weasleys, plus all of my sisters, Neville Longbottom, Draco Malfoy, and of course, Winnie Solis.

I sat in my seat next to Wolfgang, my partner. My sisters were mostly partnered together: Suzanne and Victoria, Nicole and Tamora, and Kherington and Emilina. Rosalyn was partnered with a guy friend of ours who we surprisingly hadn't seen at breakfast: John Hamlin.

To put it bluntly, John was a weird dude, but so were we. His hair was brown and curly, as were his eyes (being brown, I mean). He always wore blue contacts, and he laughed too much. All in all, he fit right in with us.

Everyone was pretty much talking before Snape walked in. When he did, we all knew to be quiet. Snape always retells us the rules every year.

"Need I remind you all," he said in his nasally voice. "If you speak in my class without being spoken to, I will take disciplinary action." In English: Shut the fuck up, or I'll go all ape on your ass.

"If you disrupt my class, you will be forcibly removed, and will never be allowed back." In English: If you goof off, I'll throw your ass out.

"And finally, if you cause an explosion with my very expensive equipment, it will lead to expulsion." In English: you blow shit up, I'll _kill _you.

"All right, then," Snape said, "let us begin with a simple oral diagnostic test just to see how many brain cells you've managed to kill over your two months of free-range."

"Miss Solis," of course he'd pick on her. "What ingredient in a Polyjuice Potion is an insect?" That was easy. Other than Winnie, I was the best potion-maker in Hogwarts. Snape barely noticed me since he was too focused on her, but I didn't care that much. It was far more amusing that way.

"The lacewing flies," Winnie said.

"Correct."

Snape continued to question people. He mostly started with the trouble-makers first (yes, that included me and Wolfgang). I knew he wouldn't ask me anything anymore. He wanted to get to everyone, and there were so many people in the class, that he could only get to everyone once. I barely paid attention, but I perked up when I heard him ask Nicole something about money.

"Why don't you ask Winnie?" she said. Uh oh.

"Why would I do that?" Snape asked. Big mistake.

"Because you _pay_ her."

"I most certainly _do not, _Miss Wilkinson!" Snape snapped. Was he getting all defensive?

It really didn't matter what Snape said since everyone started cracking up. Poor Winnie turned beet red. Wait…_beet red_? Did Snape pay her? I always thought that Nicole was making shit up. Well, maybe she really was, but still, it was a little odd that Winnie blushed like that. It got the wheels in my head turning.

"I have reason to believe you do," Nicole continued. "Rosalyn," – she lifted her head off her desk. Snape had asked her a question, so she decided to sleep. What a surprise- "how much do you think he pays her?"

"Please don't drag me into this," Rosalyn said sleepily.

"You're no fun," Nicole glared. Rosalyn smiled triumphantly.

I saw Tamora whisper "Nicole" in a warning way. Snape was getting redder and redder with each word she said. Nicole was getting her ass kicked out, no question.

"I'd say easily $100 an hour," Kherington said, both helping Nicole and making some crude boys laugh.

"How many hours do you think she spends on?" Some idiot in the back asked. Nicole shut up, taking Tamora's warning to heart. Smart move.

Nicole didn't need to talk anyway. The discussion was escalading to the whole class. People shouted out numbers left and right. Snape might as well have had smoke coming out of his ears. Winnie buried her face in her arms while her partner, Esmeralda Qualls, patted her back in a comforting way.

Snape glared at Nicole, "Miss Wilkinson." He said it through his teeth, and Nicole looked like she was saying, "me and my big mouth." "I see you haven't lost the belief that you can say whatever you please in my class," Snape continued. "You are sadly mistaken if you think that I will put up with it yet again. I hereby…" He looked at Winnie, who had poked her head out from under her arms. She looked at him pleadingly, as if to say, _don't. Oh, please, please don't._

"I hereby say that I will give you a warning since it is the first day of classes, but let it happen again, Miss Wilkinson, and there will be no mercy."

Snape turned at that, and continued on with his lesson. Un-fucking-believable. Snape never eased up on anyone. Ever. Maybe Snape really did like Winnie. I didn't know. I paid attention on and off throughout the rest of the lesson, thankful that class ended.

Once outside, we all went to the lawn in the middle of Hogwarts since school was over. Some kids were also here, basking in the mid-afternoon sun. The first thing we did was take off our robes, revealing our normal clothes: tank-tops, shorts, jeans, t-shirts, sneakers, and sandals.

We sat down in the grass. "Nicole," I said. "Winnie saved your ass today."

"I know," she said, lying down. "I can't believe Snape actually didn't do anything. It makes me think that there's more then just a business relationship between those two."

"There definitely is, no doubt about it," Kherington said.

"I wouldn't expect them to admit it," Tamora said. "I mean I wouldn't. Not if I was dating _Snape_."

We all shuddered.

"Should we spy on them?" Kherington asked.

"Yeah, I want to catch them in the act," Emilina said.

"No," Suzanne said. "If there is something going on, it isn't any of our business."

"Aww," Kherington and Emilina said.

"She's right," Wolfgang said. "Even _I_ know that would be going far. Who are we to get into it if it doesn't involve us in the first place?"

"Curious students?" Emilina offered.

"No," Nicole and Rosalyn both said.

"We'll see how things plan out," Nicole said. "But that doesn't mean we should turn a blind eye. Just go on normally, and if any of you suspect anything, call a meeting. And don't call a meeting for something stupid like telling us you enjoy cheese." Nicole eyed Tamora, who was looking at her innocently.

"What should we do now?" Victoria asked.

"Go on as we normally would," Nicole said. Since she was the oldest, we all kind of listened to her, and then did our own thing, but that was only when what she said sucked. Now, it made sense.

"I wouldn't go looking for them together," Rosalyn said. "Because you'll find nothing."

"Right," Nicole said.

"Hi guys."

I looked up at Winnie, who was smiling down on us.

"Thanks for saving my ass, Winnie," Nicole said.

She looked confused, "You think Snape was easy on you because of me?"

"Well, _duh_!"

"Can't you just admit that you like him?" Kherington asked.

"Not this again," Winnie said.

"Seriously," Kherington said.

"I'm serious too," Winnie snapped. "There is absolutely nothing going on between me and Snape. All he is to me is a mentor and a teacher. Nothing more."

"A teacher in _sex-education_," Nicole whispered.

"You're so disturbed, Nicole," Victoria scolded.

"Yeah, but that's why you love me," Nicole grinned.

Victoria rolled her eyes.

"I mean it. If there was anything, don't you think you'd know by now?" Winnie asked. She had a point there.

"Probably," Rosalyn said.

"I enjoy cheese," Tamora said.

"We know," Everyone including Winnie said in unison. We knew her too well.

"You're right there, Winnie," Nicole said with a look of uncertainty on her face.

"Anyway, I gotta go. Snape wants to teach me some new potion. See you!" And with that, Winnie waltzed away toward Potions class.

"It's probably a love potion," Nicole said.

"I doubt it," Tamora said.

"Buzz kill," Nicole told her. Tamora smiled.

"Was she lying about liking Snape?" Kherington asked, always curious.

"I don't know," Nicole said. "She doesn't even know herself. I could sense mixed emotions coming from her."

"I wish she would make up her mind," I said.

"Love isn't that simple," Nicole said.

"I wish it was. It'd be a hell of a lot easier for us," Rosalyn said.

"Shame," Victoria said.

"What?" Rosalyn said. "It's a place, Victoria. An actual _place_!"

Victoria flipped her hair; she obviously didn't give a crap.

"Okay, so I'm gonna go to the Library," Suzanne said, getting up and grabbing her robe.

"I'm coming too," Victoria said, getting up too.

The two wondered off, and I could still hear Victoria talking when they were out of sight.


	3. Attack of the Sexiness

_Chapter 3_

_Suzanne_

Walking to the Library with Victoria wasn't bad. In fact, I was spacing out the whole time. Victoria didn't notice; she just kept chatting to me, thinking I was listening. I found it amusing sometimes.

In the Library, however, it was my time to work. Victoria tried, but she failed miserably. She kept trying to start a conversation with me, and every time she did I felt bad if I couldn't hear her. Eventually, I just gave up.

"I have a test in Arithmancy, Suzanne," Victoria whined. "I'm gonna fail." Victoria liked to be overly-dramatic.

"No you're not," I said with a slight edge in my tone. I hoped she'd get the message. Unfortunately for me, she didn't.

"Yes I am. I'm gonna flunk!"

"Seriously, you're not."

"Well, whatever."

"Whatever."

Victoria happened to look to the side for an instant, "who're they?"

I looked too. There they were: two guys placed in front of one-another like we were, sitting in a table not too far away. The one in what would've been my seat was tall (in contrast to me) and had dark brown hair. He was busy reading a book, but I couldn't tell what the title was. The guy across from him seemed shorter, but still taller than me. His hair was blonde, and with my good vision, I could see that his eyes were crystal blue, almost piercing.

"I don't know who they are," I said, answering Victoria. "I've never seen them before."

"Neither have I."

"You wanna talk to them, don't you?" I said, predicting Victoria's motives.

"No, I just haven't seen them before," she said. _Sure_.

Suddenly, the guy in "my" seat looked up, and his brown eyes locked with my own. I held them there, unable to look away. What the hell? I tried, but I seriously couldn't look away. It was as if his eyes were beckoning me to go to him. He didn't look away either, which I found odd.

My heart beat faster as he got out of his chair slowly, and started walking toward us. I could see Victoria eyeing my out of the corner of my eye. I couldn't focus on her; I was too focused on those eyes…

"Excuse me," he said with a voice that reminded me of chocolate: sexy yet dark. "Is there something you wish to say?"

"No," I said quickly, finally able to look away. What the hell was that? "I was looking out the window." Thank God he'd had the sense to sit near a window. I didn't look like a total moron now.

"I see," eh said, sitting next to me. Victoria was speechless for once. I kind of liked her better that way.

"What is it about the day that amuses you so?"

Yes, I realized that he was flirting with me, and somehow I wasn't turned off by it. I almost wanted to welcome it. Geez, I was definitely changing within five minutes.  
"The sky, I guess." I was totally adlibbing now. "It's rarely like this. There isn't a cloud in sight, and it's almost cerulean." What was I talking colors for? He wouldn't have the faintest idea what I was talking about.

He looked out the window. "You're right." Guess he did know colors.

I noticed his book: _The Complete Collection of Edgar Allen Poe_. Very interesting. "You read Poe?" I asked.

"Occasionally. I believe his poems are tragic in a beautiful way. What is you're take on him?"

Oh shit. "I've never actually read anything by him," I said, smiling in an embarrassed way. I couldn't blush, but those who knew me best knew I was embarrassed whenever I made a certain face. I have yet to see this face, but I wish I could kill it.

"That's too bad," the guy said. "Here, take the book." He scooted it over to me. I touched the cover.

"That's okay, I don't need it," I said.

""I've already read it about five times, and you won't regret it," he smiled.

"Thank you," I said, slightly embarrassed.

"I'm Luke Everett, by the way," he said.

"Suzanne Singer," I said.

"And you are?" he reached his hand out to Victoria.

"Victoria Kola." She shook his hand.

"Hey, Luke," his friend had come over and was standing by Victoria, who seemed mesmerized just as I was, only by that guy.

"Are you done harassing these girls?" his friend asked.

"Caleb, we were only talking," Luke said.

"Oh, really?" Caleb seemed suspicious.

"Yes," I said quickly. "We were talking about Edgar Allen Poe."

Luke smiled at me with gratitude.

Caleb sat next to Victoria. "I'm Caleb West." He had both hands outstretched to each of us. We shook them and told him our names.

We continued talking for some time. Caleb didn't seem like that type of manly guy of everyone's dreams. He seemed like a gentleman, but more cute. He certainly made Victoria blush. It turned out that they were sixth years and in Gryffindor. I wondered why I'd never seen them before, but then again, Hogwarts was a very big school.

It was getting late, so we said good-bye and promised to talk again.

Victoria and I were walking to dinner when she started talking. "They were nice."

"I saw the way you looked at Caleb," I told her with a sly smile.

"You did?"

"Yep."

"I think I am now officially over Ron Weasley," Victoria said. "I now have a _new_ target."

"Thank God," I really was relieved. "You were scaring me there for a while."

"Sorry. I also saw the way you were looking at Luke. You could barely keep your eyes away from him."

"What can I say, he's hot."

Victoria laughed, "I've never heard you say that about a guy before. He must really rate."

I knew at that moment that I would've blushed if I could, "he must."

_Rosalyn_

I ran to dinner with ninja speed. How could I doze off in the middle of the fucking _afternoon_? That was just stupid! I knew I would probably look like an idiot if I was late, so I sped up, not paying any attention to the curious gazes of people as I ran past them.

I guess another reason why I was hurrying was because everyone always took the chicken legs first, and those were my favorites. I needed my chicken fix.

Whatever my motives were, I paid absolutely no attention whatsoever to anything until I ran smack into a guy, who made an _oof_ noise. "You wanna watch where you're going?" it wasn't that I was mad; the guy was keeping me from my chicken. I looked away instantly.

"I beg your pardon, but you _ran_ into _me."_

I now felt a little stupid. I smoothed out my hair and shirt. "Sorry," I said.

"It's fine, but why were you in a hurry?" the guy asked.

I looked at him to answer. He was tall, skinny, but not overly much, and his hair was dark and wild, but still kind of cool in a sexy way. He had dark rims around his huge dark eyes, as if he hadn't slept in days. He looked back at me blankly, but there was something in his gaze that almost made me self-conscience, as if he were _studying_ me.

"I didn't want to be late for dinner," I said.

"Well, why don't I walk you there? A pretty girl like you shouldn't need to rush places."

I smiled, and started walking beside him. I couldn't believe I was actually letting this guy walk me to dinner. It was only the second day of school, for crying out loud. I kind of liked it.

"What's your name?" I asked.

"Latimer Silverman II, but you can call me L."

"Like the guy from _Death Note_?" I said, referring to one of my favorite anime shows.

"Yes," he said, smiling. "But that was my nickname long before L made it cool."

I laughed slightly.

"Now tell me _your _name," L said.

"Rosalyn Malloy."

"Well Rosalyn, what house are you in?"

"Slytherin. You?"

"Same."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Wait a minute," I said. "I've heard of you. You're the smart kid from London, right?"

"Yes," he looked indifferent.

"I would've thought you'd be in Ravenclaw."

"Guess that's just my _true_ nature showing."

I had to admit: this guy was good.

I was well aware that we were walking at a seemingly slow pace, but then again, the few remaining people were too, but I could still here the chicken calling out to me. I didn't want to seem rude; however, so I stayed with L. Secretly, I found it intriguing that he was so mysterious. It made him all the sexier. What the hell was wrong with me? I was turning into Kherington.

Soon, we reached the Great Hall. We both walked to the Slytherin table together, and I noticed my sister's curious gazes. I'd fill them all in later.

I sat down in my usual seat. L stood behind me.

"Thank you for walking with me," he said.

"You don't have to leave," I said quickly. "You can sit with me and my sisters if you don't need to be anywhere else."

I looked at them all pleadingly. To my relief, they all smiled and nodded. I would hug them all later. I really would, even with my 'no-touchy' policy. I wanted to know more about L.

L looked at me, and then at them and made up his mind.

"I'd love to," he said, sitting down next to me.

I didn't know why, but my heart did a somersault when he did. I think my body was malfunctioning.

I ignored it. "Everyone," I said. "This is L."

_Tamora_

_Music of the Night_ from _Phantom of the Opera_ played in my head as I walked to my room after dinner. I liked to come slowly; it gave me a time to think about things. Today, I didn't have anything to think much about since it was the first day of classes, so I focused on the music.

I'm sure people noticed me as I walked by, but I didn't notice them. I suddenly heard the music getting louder in my head, almost as if I had headphones in, but I didn't. Then I realized that the music was coming from somewhere other than my ears. Someone was actually singing _Music of the Night_, and damn was he good.

I followed my ears to the source, being very careful not to make any noise. I soon found it in a room with an open door. I peaked in, and standing at the far side of the room was a guy who seemed to be a little older than me. He was tall, had some muscles and rich dark hair. The main thing I noticed, however, was his singing. It was clear to me that the guy would be a Broadway star someday. He sang with such power and gentleness that I was instantly entranced.

I leaned against the wall, and as the song went on, I slumped to the floor, nearly melting with the melody. Of course, it was not to last. I made a loud noise when I hit the ground, being the clumsy oaf that I was. Shit!

I stayed perfectly silent, and the singing ceased. I held my breath as I heard footsteps coming toward me. I shut my eyes for what would come next.

"Hello?" I heard his voice again, this time aimed in my direction. I looked up at him, his face confused. He stood in the doorway.

"Can I help you with something?" he asked me.

I was nearly speechless, but I knew he was expecting an answer, so I merely said, "no."

"Are you okay?" he asked, coming around to face me.

"I'm fine." I sounded surer than I was.

"Why are you here, then?" he asked.

"I heard you," I said, trying to keep it simple.

"Oh," he said, his voice falling. "I was being too loud again, wasn't I?"

"No," I said quickly. "I thought you sang really well. That's why I came to listen."

"You like _Phantom of the Opera_?" he asked.

"Hell yeah!" I said, "It's my absolute favorite musical."

"Mine too," he smiled.

I wanted to say more, but I was cut off by a exaggerated "ahem."

I looked into the eyes of Rosalyn, who was crossing her arms in an impatient way.

I nearly glared at her, but I knew that would be weird, so instead I said, "I have to get back to my room."

"That's fine," he said, helping me up.

I whipped the dust off my jeans before going over to Rosalyn. A thought struck me before I reached her.

"I didn't catch your name," I said to the guy, who was still standing in the doorway.

"Erik Seaton."

"Tamora Patterson," I said as Rosalyn started to walk away. I had to run to catch up with her.

"Who was that?" she asked.

"Didn't you hear him say his name?"

"Yes, but why were you talking with him?"

"He's nice," I said.

"Okay," Rosalyn said, ending it…for now.

_Kherington_

Going up to the fifth floor was a pain, especially since the staircases decided to change every five minutes. This was worse than rush-hour traffic in London.

I finally made it in one piece, which was a miracle in and of itself. I entered the winding staircase and came up to the door leading to the Ravenclaw Common Room.

Instead of a stupid password that someone could forget, the door asks you questions. The bronze knocker in the shape of an eagle at the top of the door spoke, "when is a door not a door?"

It was easy. I think the door was losing it's touch of hard questions.

"When it's ajar," I said.

"Good," it said. It swung open.

I walked in to the sound of shouts and curses. Not this again! About every night, there were intense wizard chess tournaments. I could understand if it was something like Scrabble, but no.

For once, I went to see what all the fuss was about. Two guys were playing, and it was obvious who was winning. It was Nathan Cross, a sixth year who was kind of a sexy nerd, but then again, a lot of Ravenclaw guys were.

He was whipping the butt of some first-year, who looked terrified. I felt bad for him. The game ended soon, and it wasn't close either. The poor first-year slumped off to his room while everyone cheered for Nathan.

"Does anyone challenge me," he asked in a booming voice.

No one spoke at first, but I decided, "I'll take you."

Everyone looked at me. I hoped they could see the determination on my face.

"Well well, if it isn't Kherington Schau," he said. "I'm surprised you want to play me."

"You clearly don't know a lot about me, then," I said, taking my seat across from him.

"Let the game begin," some guy on the side said.

Nathan and I made moves on the board. It wasn't too hard, because I nearly beat Victoria once, but Nathan took that time to talk.

"Beware," he said as he made a never move. "I've been undefeated all night. I hope you know what you're getting into."

I moved a knight, checkmating his piece. Everyone was speechless.

"You know I do," I said with a smirk.

The game continued. We were equally matched. The people on the sidelines cheered. I was surprised someone didn't complain.

Soon enough, the game was nearly decided. If he checkmated me once, he would win, and vice versa.

We didn't talk at this time. Come to think of it, no one did. It was pretty much dead silence except for the fireplace.

I thought and worked out a plan. It was his turn, though, so I would have to see how it went.

He made his move, shocking me. He placed it in a space where it made it virtually impossible for me to get to it. My plan was shattered. He laughed a little. I eyed him, but I noticed something on the board. I couldn't get to it alone, but he failed to notice that if I could check him in another position. I did so, causing a huge wave of cheers. I expected Nathan to be mad, but instead he smiled and clapped twice. I smiled.

"Well played," he said. "Well played."

_Nicole_

Hell, hell, hell! I was so screwed, it wasn't funny. How could I do it? It was so simple. It was an unspoken fucking _rule_! I forgot the damn password into Gryffindor. How could I be do damn lame? No one forgot the password except for _Neville Longbottom_, and I was now on his level. I cringed just thinking about it.

I paced back and forth in front of the picture. She eyes me as I went. I didn't like it.

"You're mocking me, aren't you?" I spat as when I passed her.

"It's not my fault you can't remember," she smirked.

"Yeah, well it's not _my_ fault you keep changing the damn thing!" She rolled her eyes and quite looking at me. If she was a real person, she'd be dead by now.

I didn't know what to do. The fucking password could be anything. I decided to wait until some straggler made their way in. I was still frustrated, so I paced some more. God, this sucked!

I didn't know how long I was like that until I heard the footsteps of someone. For a split second, I froze. If it was a professor, I was double-screwed. To my utter relief, it was just a guy, a sixth year probably. A _sexy_ sixth year. His hair was dirt blonde and reached the nape of his neck. His skin was tan, so I could tell he worked out, and his brown eyes were piercing. I couldn't take my breath away. My eyes began to droop in a dreamy state, but I caught them just in time.

I turned toward the painting in annoyance. I could hear his footsteps and feel his curiosity.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

I turned to face him. He was even sexier up close.

"No, just locked out," I admitted.

"Forgot the password?"

"Yeah," I answered, glaring at the painting. She just smiled back at me.

"Here," he said, stepping in front of me. "Lindor."

The painting swung open. I was dumb-founded. Wasn't that a chocolate company? Whoever made that up was probably high.

"Thanks," I said, walking in, blushing.

I walked to the staircase to go upstairs, but his voice stopped me, "wait!"

I looked toward him. He was standing kind of close in front of me. It made my heart beat faster.

"Tell me your name," he said.

"Nicole Wilkinson," I said. "What's yours?"

"Tristan Hart."

I smiled, "nice to meet you."

He smiled at me, "nice to meet you too."

I turned with a smile and walked up the stairs. "I'll see you around," I said.

"Definitely," was all he said.

I kept walking to my room, and I couldn't keep the seemingly ever-present smile off my face.

_Wolfgang_

I was walking to my room when my life changed forever. I wasn't sure at the time if it was for the better or not, but I guess it doesn't really matter. The change itself was important.

After the way my bitch roommates woke me up that morning, I wasn't too keen on going back. Who knew what kind of other cruel things they had up their petite little sleeves. If worse came to worse, I could always use my secret weapon, but that was only for the most desperate of times.

Around a corner of a long hallway, I noticed a group leaning over something. I recognized one out of the group in particular: Draco Malfoy. I wouldn't admit to just anyone that I liked him. I had an image to maintain. Still, I'd fallen pray to his charm. Damn you, Cupid.

I was curious, so I walked over to the group. They didn't notice me at first. They were leaning over a map of some kind.

"Who the hell are you?" one of the groups asked. A rough looking guy with bad hair.

"I don't have to tell you," I said, glaring.

"You idiot," another guy said, referring to the first guy, "that's Wolfgang Patterson. She's a best fucking prankster in Slytherin."

Draco looked up as if first noticing me for the first time. He almost looked at me admiringly.

"I can't take all the credit," I said. "My sister, Ravyn does it with me."

"That's right," the second guy said.

"What're you guys up to?" I asked.

"We're gonna nuke the Great Hall," Draco said with pride. Amateurs. The map was of the great hall, and they had a few places marked with an X.

"Those are the places where we'll strike," the second guy said.

"Well, some of them suck," I said, pointing to the ones near the professor's table. "If you get to them, then they'll dispose of the plan. You should start off with the Hufflepuffs since they are least likely to notice at first." Yes, I'm fully aware that Emilina was a Hufflepuff. I'd warn her beforehand.

The guys looked over the plants, scribbled out X's and made new ones.

"Okay, then make your way to the other tables. You have to get Slytherin though to seem less suspicious. Then, get the professor's table."

"Why didn't we think of that," the first guy asked.

_Because you're stupid_, I thought. I said nothing. For all of you people who think I'm terrible for going along with this, I would warn my sisters. Geez!

"Thanks for your help," Draco said, rolling up the map.

"No prob," I said.

"We'll let you know if we have any more, okay?" Draco said.

"I'll get Ravyn in on the next one too. She's _devilish_," I said with a smirk.

I turned and waltzed off to my room, possiblly glowing from remembering Draco's face when he first saw me.

* * *

Author's Note

Hey guys, it's Amy!

Could you all do me a favor and let me know where Typo's are so that I may fix them. Lot's of late-night writing, what can I say... hence, more typo's.

I really appreciate it!


	4. Acting High Never Gets You Anywhere

_Chapter 4_

_Nicole_

I woke to the sound of Angie's alarm playing _Wake Me Up When September Ends _by _Green Day_. How appropriate. Like most normal people, I wasn't a morning person at all, so as everyone sleepily got out of bed, no one talked to me.

Victoria and Angie crowded around the one mirror we had, shoving each other away from it every so often. They were too funny.

Suzanne went to the bathroom, and Éponine watered her plants. I didn't feel like doing much of anything, so I just put my hair up in a messy bun. Angie put on a soft rock station on her radio, and everyone listened. Suzanne came back, still in her pajamas, yanking a brush through her long hair.

She decided to be the first, "Nicole?"

"Yo."

"Will you French braid my hair?"

I was shocked. She never asked me to do that. "Let me think," I said dramatically. "Abso-fucking-lutely!"

"Shame," Victoria scolded. I rolled my eyes.

Suzanne smiled, and sat on her bed. I sat next to her and took her brush, running it through once more.

"I don't feel like getting dressed," Angie said.

"That's fine as long as you don't intend on going naked," I said, grinning.

"Damn!" Angie said, throwing her arms up in the air. "Foiled again!"

"Shame," Victoria said.

Again, I rolled my eyes.

For once, Éponine spoke, "why do you feel the need to curse?" It was a general question.

"It's fun, I guess," I said, loving being able to finally talk to her. "It gives more purpose to life."

"It seems to me you're just ending it all the more horrible."

I wasn't mad, but it kind of hurt. Éponine always said what she thought, regardless of whether or not it was hurtful. She was honest like that. I respected her for it.

Everyone looked at me, expecting a snappy comeback that never came. Since I wasn't getting mad, no one else said anything. I had that way with people.

I finished braiding Suzanne's hair. She got up, and changed the radio station to her favorite rock station. For those of you that think Suzanne's just a bookworm goody-goody who's never heard hard rock in her life, you'd be wrong. The truth was, Suzanne loved rock, much like the rest of us.

The radio was playing _Savior_ by _Rise Against_. It wasn't our favorite song, but it got stuck in our heads because it was so catchy.

Victoria, Suzanne, and I laughed. Angie eyed us. Éponine groaned.

Angie looked at the clock and sighed, "we still have a half hour 'til breakfast. What the hell are we supposed to do?" ("Shame," said Victoria.) "I'm starving!"

"Speaking of starving," I said looking at Suzanne. "Where's Tunie?"

As if on cue, the black puff of fur that was Tunie peeked out from behind Suzanne's pillow. She stretched dramatically, then hopped down, ran to Suzanne, and meowed pitifully, weaving in between her legs.

"I know, Tunie." Suzanne said, taking out a bag of cat food from her suit case.

"How the hell did you sneak that in?" I asked, eyeing Victoria, who said nothing for once.

"It was easy. I just put it under a whole bunch of stuff."

"I'm proud," I said, smiling.

Suzanne fed Tunie, who ate happily, then went to Victoria and purred. Victoria picked her up, and cradled her in her arms, muttering things babies would find dumb.

"You're one-of-a-kind, you know that, Victoria?" I said.

"Yep," she said, burying her face in Tunie's fur.

"So," Angie said, sitting on her own bed. "I heard something _very scandalous_ in the walls of Hogwarts."

"What?" Suzanne and I asked.

"Well, it has to do with two certain friends of ours, and it's very surprising."

"What is it?" I said, leaning closer by force of habit.

Angie smiled slyly, "well, apparently, Suzanne and Victoria have found guys that they enjoy, and haven't even bothered to tell us."

"How did you find out about that?" Suzanne asked.

"I have my sources," Angie said simply.

I eyed Victoria and Suzanne, "why didn't you guys tell me?"

"We forgot," Victoria said. "It's not like we think about them all the time."

"Well, geez!" I said. 'Who are they, anyway?"

"Their names are Caleb West and Luke Everett."

"I've heard of them," Angie said. "They're nice."

"I want to see them," I said. "Are they in Gryffindor?"

"Yeah, they're sixth years."

"Will you point them out to me at breakfast?" I asked.

"Yep," Suzanne said.

"I also heard that a certain guy let _you_ into Gryffindor late last night, Nicole," Angie said.

"Okay, I came back when you were in the room. How the fuck do you know that?" I asked.

"Shame," Victoria said.

"Shut up."

"I told you, I have my sources," Angie said.

"Whatever, it doesn't even matter. And FYI, I did meet a guy," I said.

"Who?"

"His name is Tristan Hart."

"I've heard of him too. I think he's from the US."

"So am I," I said, earning a few confused looks. "Ruth said my mom was from Texas," I explained.

"Yeah, but you yourself are not from Texas," Victoria said.

"So? It's my heritage. You don't complain about Suzanne being from Germany."

"My family is from Germany, not me," Suzanne said.

"Oh, fuck you," I said.

Suzanne smirked. She knew I didn't mean it.

"We have to go," Éponine said suddenly.

We all looked at her.

"I can tell what time it is by the position of the sun," she explained. "We have to go."

That was all the proof we needed. We shuffled out of the room, still in our pajamas, and walked into the crowd of Gryffindors, but still managed to stay together.

No one seemed to care that we were in our pajamas, all except for Hermione Granger.

"Why are you wearing night clothes?" she asked in that annoying voice of hers.

"We didn't feel like getting dressed," Suzanne told her before I got the chance to. She knew I'd end up getting us in trouble. Out of all the Gyrffindors, Hermione seemed to annoy me the most, even more so than Neville Longbottom, and that's saying something.

"What's the point?" Hermione continued. "You'll just have to come back here and change afterwards."

"We're just being lazy today," Angie said (again, before I could say something. These girls knew me too well.)

"Okay, then," Hermione said before waltzing off to Ron Weasley and Harry Potter.

"She _really_ pisses me off, you guys," I said.

"Shame," Victoria said.

"Seriously, don't you have anything better to do," I said to her. After fifteen years of hearing 'shame' after every cuss, it got pretty damn old.

"Nope," Victoria said, smirking.

I groaned.

"I know she annoys you," Suzanne said. "But she doesn't mean anything by it."

"Oh I think she does," I said. "She probably thinks she's better than all of us."

"She doesn't," Suzanne said. "I know her somewhat, and she really doesn't. She just seems that way sometimes."

"If you say so," I said.

We continued to the Great Hall, where Dumbledore said his magical words of wisdom, and up popped the food (the marvelous food). Before Victoria and Suzanne could get a good pace going with their eating, I said, "so where are they?"

Being smart and knowing exactly whom I was referring to, they scanned the Gryffindor Table.

Victoria caught sight of them first, "over there."

She pointed toward the middle of Gryffindor Table were most of the sixth years always sat. I saw a tall dark haired guy in black sitting next to a blonde dude wearing red.

"Caleb's the guy in red, I take it," I said.

"Yeah," Victoria said. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"He looks more your type than Suzanne's."

"No he doesn't," Victoria argued.

"Yes he does," Angie, Suzanne, and I all said in unison.

Victoria crossed her arms.

"And Luke is the dark haired mysterious looking guy?" I asked.

"Yep," Suzanne said, smiling, embarrassed.

"He's hot," I said to her. "Nice work."

"Hey," Victoria said, offended. "You didn't say Caleb was hot."

"Because he isn't," I said. "He's cute."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Stop asking that," I said. "It doesn't go there, and it's fucking annoying."

"Shame."

"So is that," I told her, narrowing my eyes.

I know what you guys are thinking. Yeah, Victoria and I are mean to each other, but we're the type of best friends who are always at each others' throats. See, it makes sense now.

"Wait," Suzanne said. "Where's Tristan, Nicole?"

"You guys don't have to see him if you don't want to," I said.

"We want to," Suzanne, Victoria, and Angie all said.

"Alright," I said, looking among the Gryffindors. "He's across from Caleb and Luke."

"The guy with longish hair?" Victoria asked.

"And dirty blonde," Suzanne asked.

"Yep," I said, triumphant.

"Very hot," Suzanne said.

"He's okay," Victoria said.

"Oh, you're just pissed 'cause I called Caleb _cute_," I said.

Victoria glared.

"We have to go soon," Éponine said, looking up to the ceiling that was magiced-up to look like the sky.

"Okay, let's wrap this up," I said.

Once we went back to Gryffindor and changed into normal clothes, we had to go the classes. Suzanne and I had Muggle Studies first, so we went there.

Professor Moss was new this year, so everyone was a little on edge, but I didn't give a shit. The woman was tall and blonde, and always perky. She made me sick…

"Hello class," she said when she entered. "I know it's only the second day of classes, but we rarely got a chance to talk yesterday because of the rules we had to go over, so I would like everyone to stand up and tell us your name and one thing about you."

"Is this woman for real?" I whispered to Suzanne.

She shrugged.

One by one, everyone stood and told us their names and one thing about them. I didn't know how Professor Moss would remember them all. Soon it was Suzanne and my turns.

I stood first, "okay, my name is Nicole, and I like to dance." It was true.

Next, Suzanne stood, "I'm Suzanne, and I'm pretty ninja." A lot of people (including me) laughed. Professor Moss laughed a little.

Once everyone was done telling us about themselves, we continued on with class. We learned quickly that she never called on you if you didn't raise you hand. Suzanne and I never did. It wasn't that we didn't know the answers to any of her questions, we truly did, it was just that we'd rather not answer if we didn't have to.

Like it always is with an overly perky teacher, class was uneventfully boring. Suzanne might've even slept throughout the entire class. While I remained as alert as I could, I envied her. I knew that with my luck, I'd fall asleep, and she'd catch me. I didn't want to risk it.

When the bell rang, Suzanne jumped from the loud noise, making me laugh.

"How was your sleep?" I asked on the way out.

"Wonderful," she said. "You should try it."

"Yeah, if she ever becomes blind, I may just do that."

"Where to next?" Suzanne asked. "My brain is still asleep. I can't remember."

"Arithmancy with Angie and Rosalyn," I said.

"Ugh!" Suzanne groaned. "Yet another boring class to follow a class I slept in. By the time I'm done with this, I'll have slept an entire month's worth."

"Har har," I said.

We were walking into Arithmancy where Professor Vector was writing some long number problem on the board. "Hell," I muttered.

Suzanne and I sat down next to each other, and a few minutes later, Rosalyn and Angie waltzed in. Rosalyn sat next to me on the opposite side of Suzanne, and Angie sat next to Suzanne on the opposite side of me. Yes, confusing.

"Hi," Rosalyn chirped.

Suzanne and I were a little scared, "hi?"

"What's wrong?" Angie asked in a rather squeaky voice. "You guys are all uptight."

"Are you guys high?" I asked.

"Maybe just a little," Rosalyn said.

"We've been smelling sniffy markers," Angie said, taking a few assorted markers out of her robes.

Suzanne instantly grabbed them out of her hand.

"These aren't sniffy markers," she said after examining them. "These are sharpies."

"Oh, woops," Rosalyn slurred.

"What will Vector say if he spots them?" Suzanne asked.

"He's not gonna," I said, seeing Winnie a few desks away. Class hadn't started yet, so I waved my hand, trying to get her attention. Suzanne helped. Winnie saw and looked. We pointed to Angie and Rosalyn, who were pretty much baked. She didn't need anything else. She understood instantly.

She hopped up from her chair, and rushed to us. "Vector has his back turned, if we get them out of here fast enough, he won't notice," she said.

"Yeah, but wont we get in trouble for ditching?" I asked.

"Not if we don't get caught," Winnie said, hoisting a limp Angie from her chair. I helped Rosalyn up, and we made our way to the door. I was surprised that no one was looking at us. They were all too absorbed in their own conversations.

We made it out the door without a hitch, then went to the bathroom. Rosalyn and Angie started laughing uncontrollably.

"What the hell?" I asked, leaning close to Rosalyn.

"You guys fell for it," she squealed.

"Fell for what?" I asked, narrowing my eyes.

"You think we'd actually be high?" Angie said. "We're not that stupid. We just wanted to get out of class."

"You're _terrible_," I said, hitting her in the arm. She laughed even harder. "It would be one thing if it was just us, but now Winnie's involved."

"_You_ were the one who involved her. Not us," Rosalyn pointed out, acting completely normal.

"Your kind of a bitch," I said.

"Yeah, just a little," she said.

"Well, we're here," Suzanne said. "What should we do?"

"We could always play _I Never_," Rosalyn said, taking out a couple of flasks from her robes.

"Do those have alcohol in them?" Winnie asked, eyeing the flasks suspiciously.

"Nah, they're empty unfortunately," Angie said, taking them from Rosalyn. "But we can fill them with water. Being drunk at Hogwarts is pretty much the dumbest thing you can do…when you have classes." Angie went to the sink to fill them with water.

"Yeah, when you don't have classes, you can get seriously fucked up and no one even cares," Rosalyn said.

Suzanne cringed, "I can't even imagine drinking alcohol."

"We know," Angie said, passing around the now filled flasks. "That's why the flasks were empty. It wouldn't be fun without you."

Suzanne smiled, taking a flask.

"Oh, and before we play," I said, taking one. "You can say whatever you want. Nothing is off-limits. And I do mean nothing."

Rosalyn and Angie laughed.

"Okay, I'll go first," Winnie said. We all sat down on the floor in a circle. "I never had sex in a car."

Angie took a swig from the flask.

"Really, Angie?" I asked. "In a car?"

"It was just a summer fling," she said. "And he was _very_ hot."

"Whatever floats your boat," Rasalyn said.

"I never fantasized about a teacher," Angie said.

Winnie took a small sip from the flask.

"BUSTED!" We all shouted at her, making her laugh.

"What?" she tried to be innocent.

"Let me guess," I said. "It's Snape."

"Guilty," Winnie whispered.

Rosalyn and I squealed with delight while Suzanne muttered "bad mental images." Angie just laughed.

"But don't go off telling the whole school," Winnie said. "It's a secret."

"You get two choices," Rosalyn said. "We can tell the school, or we can tell our sisters. You're call."

"Your sisters are fine. I can trust them," Winnie said. "Well, most of them."

"We wont tell those who will tell," I said.

Angie remained silent.

"Angie," I said, eyeing her.

"Alright," she said, giving in. "I won't tell." If there was anything Angie liked, it was spreading gossip.

"Okay, Rosalyn, your turn," Angie said.

"Let me think," Rosalyn said. "I never did anything illegal."

Angie took a swig.

"What'd you do?" I asked.

"I stole from a convenient store."

"How'd you get away?" Suzanne asked.

"I just took off the wrapper."

"Was it a Hershey's?" Rosalyn asked.

"No, a Twix."

"Totally worth it," I said.

"Definitely."

"Okay Nicole," Winnie said. "What have you never done?"

"I never watched porn," I said.

Rosalyn drank.

"_What?!_" Suzanne and I asked.

"I don't fucking believe it," Angie said.

"I watched _Cold Mountain_ once when Ruth wasn't hom_e_," Rosalyn said.

"That's not porn, that's just Rated R," I said.

"But there were a lot of parts I didn't really need to see."

"Whatever," I said.

"Okay," Suzanne said. "I never kissed anyone."

"You're so boring, Suzanne, I said, swigging. Everyone else did it too.

"Oh my God," Suzanne said.

"Well, obviously I have," Angie said.

"So have I," Winnie said.

"Was it Snape?" I asked, smiling.

"Nope, but we're getting there."

"Who was it then?" I asked.

"My best friend at a concert."

"Who was it for you, Rosalyn?" I asked.

"The neighbor kid back at the manor."

"Hmm," I said. "Not bad."

"No he wasn't," Rosalyn said. "How about you, Nicole?"

"That guy I met in Barcelona that one summer."

"He was hot," Suzanne said.

"Yes he was," I said.

"Did you fuck him?" Angie asked.

"No, but I wanted to."

"Okay, too much information," Suzanne said.

"You'd make an excellent nun," I said.

"Nah, I'm way too evil for that," she said. Couldn't argue with that logic.

"Okay, guys," Winnie said. "We've been in here for like ten minutes. We should probably get back to class."

"Damn it," Rosalyn muttered.

We poured out the water in the flasks and gave them back to Rosalyn. On the way back to Arithmancy, Winnie and Angie were busy talking about something, and Suzanne, Rosalyn, and I quickly fell behind. We didn't mind. We wanted to miss as much class as possible.

"We're pretty stupid for going back, I think," Rosalyn said. "He's going to know we totally ditched."

"We could always hang out in front of Dumbledore's office until class is over. No one will suspect anything," I suggested.

"Okay," Suzanne and Rosalyn said. Really, what other choices did we have?

We went to Dumbledore's office without running to Filch amazingly. We sat on the chairs next to his door and waited…

"…they're too young, Albus…"

"…Trust me, Minerva…"

Muffled voices were coming from Dumbledore's office. He and Professor McGonagall were talking. It was too much for Rosalyn and me. We crawled over to his door. Suzanne came too. We still couldn't hear very well. "…They're ready…"

"Fuck this," I said, reaching up for the door handle, and opening it slightly. It never made a noise, thank God. Suzanne's heart jumped when I opened it. Professor McGonagall and Dumbledore didn't know we were listening.

"They're only fifteen, Albus," Professor McGonagall said.

"That was the age Elizabeth entrusted me to give them the gifts," Dumbledore said. "I trusted her judgment then, I still do today."

"Elizabeth's judgment was exactly what got them killed," Professor McGonagall was saying.

Who where they talking about, and who the hell was Elizabeth?

"Minerva, Elizabeth one of the most powerful witches in the Order of the Phoenix. They all were. Cybele herself told of them. They must learn the truth."

"I understand that, but must they know of it at such a young age?"

"I must teach them now. If not, their powers will be unleashed and obliterate them. I must act before that happens."

"I understand." Professor McGonagall went silent.

"Yes," Dumbledore said. "I will call them too my office soon. They will know."

Footsteps were closing in on the door. We backed away, and ran into a door opposite that of Dumbledore's office, closing it behind us.

I heard her Professor Mcgonagall's footsteps leave Dubledore's office, and walk fast-paced down the hall. We waited unti we could no longer hear them. We walked out of the empty room, then, the bell rang.

"Well, that was convenient," I said.

"Totally," Suzanne said.

"What are we gonna do now?" Rosalyn asked.

"This is very peculiar," I said. "We should call a meeting."

"Do we have to?" Rosalyn asked.

"Yeah, I think this is important," I said.

They both nodded.

Then I thought really hard that I needed to see the other girls, walking into the empty room, and there they were.


	5. That Day When Stuff Just Gets Worse

_Chapter 5_

_Nicole_

In the Room of Requirement, everyone was there, looking around like idiots.

"How the hell did we get here?" Ravyn asked from across the room, earning yet another "shame" from Victoria.

"I willed you all here," I said. "We're in the Room of Requirement. Can't you tell?"

Everyone looked around again and nodded with recognition.

"But we were right next to Dumbledore's office," Suzanne said. "The Room of Requirement is on the seventh floor. How are we here?"

"I'm. Just. Awesome," I said matter-of-factly.

Suzanne didn't question me. Nor did anyone else.

"Okay," Victoria said after I finished my statement. "_Why_ are we here, then?"

"Because we need to talk to you," I said.

Everyone stared at me expectantly while I explained what we heard in Dumbledore's office. Everyone seemed a little shocked, but not at the level I imagined.

"What does this have to do with us?" Tamora asked once I'd finished my story.

"I honestly don't know," I said. "I just have a feeling."

"That tonight's gonna be a good night," Rosalyn sang, causing the others to laugh.

"No," I said, glaring at her. Rosalyn smiled.

"Do you think Dumbledore was talking about us to Professor McGonagall?" Wolfgang asked.

"Maybe."

"Well, if they were talking about us," Emilina said. "What are these 'gifts' he has to give us?"

"I haven't the faintest idea," I said in a fake British accent, making everyone giggle but Tamora, who had a real British accent.

"I hope he wouldn't give us books," Kherington said, "I have too many as it is. I don't need more."

"I don't think any of us need more," I said, knowing full well we each had several completely filled bookshelves back home.

"So what could they be?" Kherington asked.

"Guys, we don't even know they were talking about _us_," Rosalyn said.

"She's right," I agreed. "We can't go making assumptions about things we know nothing about. Let's just wait and see what happens."

Everyone nodded, and Ravyn rolled her eyes afterward, earning a glare from me.

"So what do we do now?" Victoria said. "'Cause I don't know about the rest of you guys, but I feel like crap. And we're late for lunch. And I'm really hungry. And I'll have to go back to class after this and fail that test…"

It went on and on.

We did go to lunch, and I could sense that my sisters were on edge about the whole thing. To their credit, they were doing a hell of a job of not showing their anxiety. Angie and Éponine didn't suspect a thing.

After that, I had Transfiguration with Rosalyn, Ravyn, and Éponine. Bored as usual, Ravyn often tried to sabotage others with her wand, but I caught her every time because she would become excited when she was about to do something. I did turn a blind eye sometimes just to see a beetle blow up in some kid's face. It was worth it.

Herbology was next with Wolfgang, Tamora, and Victoria. I sat next to Victoria because I was the one who could take her mindless babble the most. Wolfgang and Tamora stayed clear of us the whole time. Can't say I blamed them; Victoria wouldn't shut up. I answered her questions, and even added the occasional "shut up, woman! You're giving me a headache!" Of course, she never did. I think she liked torturing me.

Defense Against the Dark Arts was with Wolfgang, Kherington and Emilina. I sat next to Wolfgang because I knew if I ever messed up, I could count on her to distract Professor Carrow.

I was falling asleep while Carrow gave us one of his beyond-boring lectures on unicorns and how they benefit the natural ecosystem and blah, blah, blah when I noticed Tristan sitting a few desks over. He wasn't looking at me or anything, but I could feel that he was anxious about something…or someone. This made me anxious too. I fidgeted in my seat, making Wolfgang notice. She looked where I was looking and said, "is that the mysterious Tristan I keep hearing about?"

"Who told you?" I asked.

"A little bird told me," Wolfgang said.

"Angie?"

"Yep."

"I should've known better than to trust her with that," I said. Wolfgang and I were sitting in the back of the room. Carrow barely noticed us.

"Please, Nicole," Wolfgang said. "You can't blame her. That's some pretty juicy shit right there."

"Me liking a totally hot guy is juicy shit?" I asked.

"Completely," she said.

"Hmm," I said. "I can't be too mad at her then."

Wolfgang shook her head.

"How's it going with you and _you-know-who_?" I asked her quietly.

She looked around to be sure no one was watching before answering, "we're getting somewhere."

"What does that mean?" I asked.

"It means he's finally recognized me and we actually _talked_."

"That's good," I was genuinely happy for her.

"Curse his abilities to make me want to faint!" Wolfgang said dramatically, burying her head in her hands.

"It's okay, Wolfgang," I said, resting a hand on her shoulder. "Everyone falls for a guy sooner or later."

"Not Emilina," Wolfgang countered.

"Yeah, well," I said. "Emilina is just…Emilina."

"What does that mean?" she asked, mimicking me.

"She doesn't need (or really want) a boyfriend. She's fine the way she is."

"Yeah, but I'm the one everyone thinks will die alone in the woods…alone. How can I possibly live up to expectations if I have a…_crush_?"

She said it sarcastically, whispering the last word.

"You could kill someone. That might help," I said giggling.

"Already have," she said, laughing herself.

"After you fucked him, right?" I asked.

"You caught me."

We both burst out laughing at that, causing everyone in the room to look. Carrow wasn't happy.

"Is there something you two wish to share with the rest of the class?" he asked, his eyes narrowing until I could barely see them. He looked better that way.

After a quick knowing glace at each other, we both answered in unison, "Nunya."

In America, they used it all the time. In Britain, they either didn't know about it, or didn't feel like using it.

"_Nunya_?" Carrow asked, dumbfounded.

"Yeah," I said. "Nunya damn business!" We both finished the last part.

The room erupted in applause and laughter. Carrow was ready to burst. Wolfgang and I looked smug. The noise died down, and everyone waited to see what Carrow would do.

He opened his mouth (probably about to give is a million years of detention or something fucked up like that) when the bell rang, signaling the end of class. Wolfgang and I didn't have to be told twice. We ran like hell through the door and down the hall toward Potions. We slowed, and were thankful that Carrow wasn't following us.

It took us the entire trip to Potions to realize just how funny what we did really was. We went into class laughing, and no one really paid us any mind (bastards!).

I sat next to Tamora, my giggles finally ending.

"What the hell is so funny?" Tamora asked.

That sent me off again, but I managed to explain eventually. She thought it was funny too. Carrow was an ass. No one could deny that.

When the class was filled, Snape finally decided to grace us with his greasy-haird presence.

"Good afternoon, class," he said (his voice was getting worse).

"Today, we will be taking a new approach to Potions since you all act like imbeciles where you are now. This will be the first of many times where you will have another partner than the one you already have. This is to ensure that you will learn Potions as well as social skills."

"Like anyone gives a shit," I whispered to Tamora.

"I will allow you to pick your own partners, but you will be given 30 seconds to do so," Snape continued.

"You only let us because you're a lazy-ass bastard who fucks Winnie in your spare time," I whispered.

Tamora thought the Winnie reference was funny. Of course, I knew it wasn't true…yet. Besides, I was just joking.

"Okay," Snape said (_will he be finished soon?_ I thought) "get to it."

"Well, okay then," I said, getting up. Tamora got up too, and we both went our separate ways. I went to Rosalyn and John's table.

"Yo, John," I said. "Get lost." I was joking, and he knew it.

"But I don't want to," he whined.

"Well, that's too damn bad," I said.

I heard a "shame" from somewhere in the room.

"Fine," John said with fake anger. "I'll just go sit with someone cooler, then."

"You do that," Rosalyn said.

John left, and I sat in his place.

"How are you, Rosalyn?" I asked.

"I've been exactly the same since Arithmancy, Nicole."

"Well, then," I said with emphasis.

"What have you found out about these _gifts_?" Rosalyn asked.

"I big fat nothing."

"Same."

"Time's up!" Snape called. Unfortunately, everyone had a partner. I was hoping he'd have to go all medieval on someone's ass.

"Now that you have different partners, you must now complete a potion of your choosing, but it must contain all of the ingredients in front of you," Snape explained.

I looked at the ingredients on a plate on the desk. I didn't even know what half of the stuff was, let alone what they were used for.

"Begin," Snape announced.

"How the fuck are we supposed to do this?" I asked, kind of mad.

"How the hell should I know?" Rosalyn said. "I usually sleep through this class."

"I guess we'll just have to wing it, then," I said.

"What do you think we should do first?" Rosalyn asked.

"We could stew this frog thing first," I said, picking it up by its leg. "It might be funny if anything."

Rosalyn nodded in agreement.

And yes, it was funny.

I have no idea how we did it, but we made a potion out of the stuff without blowing it up. It kind of looked like purple vomit, though.

"I really hope we don't have to drink it," I said.

"Please, if we have to, we'll get Neville to do it," Rosalyn said.

"I don't think he'd do it," I said.

"He might if you kiss him," Rosalyn said.

"Very funny," I said sarcastically. Like _that_ was ever gonna happen.

Winnie was walking around, looking at people's potions while Snape just stood there in his…Snapeness.

"What did you guys do?" Winnie asked when she came to us.  
"Honestly," Rosalyn said. "The whole thing was kind of a blur."

"It looks like melted ice cream mixed with some kind of animal droppings," Winnie said, eyeing it.

Rosalyn laughed.

"What?" Winnie asked.

"You said _droppings_," Rosalyn replied.

Winnie and I rolled our eyes.

When Snape came back to reality from his daydream (about Winnie, I'm sure), he came around to look at the potions. Winnie blocked ours from view (God love her) and he passed by without a single look around her. God, he was so obsessed with her.

After class, we all went to our rooms and didn't go out in the yard since it was raining (what a fucking surprise).

Tunie was playing with the leaves of one of Éponine's plants, and Suzanne had to take her away from it. She was afraid it would bite her.

Angie put on the radio again, and Victoria started reading.

"How the hell are you about to do that?" I asked her.

"Do what? And shame!" Victoria said.

"Read while the radio's on."

"I don't really know," she said. "I've just always been able to do it."

I was satisfied enough. I plopped down on Angie's bed and sprawled out across it. It response, Angie jumped on mine. Suzanne joined her.

"What the hell, you guys?" I asked Suzanne and Angie ("Shame" Victoria said).

"You bed is comfy," Suzanne said.

"Yeah, really," Angie said. "Mine sucks. Can we switch?"

"Not in your life," I said. There was no way I was giving up my bed.

Éponine suddenly perked up from her reverie, and turned the radio off.

"What the fuck?" Angie asked. "It was just getting good."

"Shame," Victoria said.

"I heard something," Éponine said.

We all knew that Éponine had incredible hearing, and if she said she heard something, she did.

"Was it Tunie?" Suzanne asked.

"Nope," Éponine said. "This was a person. Besides, she's over there, sleeping on your bed."

She was right. Tunie was curled up on one of Suzanne's pillows, asleep. It made me jealous.

Then, we all heard it. A sort of thud…kind of like a footstep. We stayed deathly quiet. Whoever it was was creeping slowly toward our room. Any Gryffindor wouldn't do that.

We heard what sounded like fingernails grazing the wood of our door, not seeking entry, but wanting it.

"Who is it," Suzanne mouthed at me.

I groped for the emotions of the intruders. I felt warmth…excitement…nerves…happiness…humor.

"What the fuck?" I whispered, moving to the door.

Victoria didn't say 'shame' this time, but I could feel the familiar emotion of resentment for the cuss coming from her.

I rested my hand on the doorknob, waiting. Suddenly, I jerked it open, and was looking into the faces of my Slytherin sisters.

"WHAT THE FUCK!" I shouted at them. "YOU GAVE US A FUCKING HEART ATTACK! I HOPE YOUR PRETTY DAMN HAPPY!"

As I shouted at them, they all burst out laughing.

"That's not fucking funny," I said.

"Yes it is," Ravyn and Wolfgang said.

"Calm down, Nicole," Tamora said.

"Never tell me to calm down," I said. "And…wait!"

I narrowed my eyes at her and said in a sigh pitched, croaky voice, "you were in on it too."

"Yeah," Tamora said before laughing.

I took a deep breath, "well, I guess only everyone in Europe heard that, so you can congratulate yourselves on that, but next time, the entire world might be a bigger challenge for you."

Everyone kind of giggled.

"Why are you here anyway," Suzanne asked.

"Oh yeah, we forgot," Rosalyn said. "Dumbledore called us all down to his office. Kherington and Emilina are already there."

"Why didn't he call us down?" I asked.

"He wanted to, but we told him we'd come get you," Wolfgang said.

"Yeah, and scare the shit out of us in the process," I said.

"Shame," Victoria said.

"Shut up!" Rosalyn, Wolfgang, and I all said.

I'd never seen Victoria shut her mouth so fast in my life. She wasn't so mad when we started laughing.

"This meeting doesn't include us, I take it," Angie said, referring to Éponine and herself.

"You guessed right," Rosalyn said. "Sorry."

"No biggie," Angie said. "My imagination dreams up better stories anyway when they tell me later."

"Okay," Tamora said. "We should probably get going."

"Oh, keep your knickers on, Grandma," Suzanne said, imitating an old lady. "These legs aren't what they used to be."

We cracked up. (I am aware we laugh a lot. That's just how we roll.)

We walked all the way to Dumbledore's office, discussing what this could be about. Of course, the _gifts_ came up, and that was the best explanation we could think of.

We met up with Kherington and Emilina, and they joined our discussion until Dumbledore called us in.

Several chairs were set up around his desk; just enough for all of us. It was like we were sitting to listen to a religious sermon or something.

Dumbledore sat behind his desk, and opened his mouth to speak.

"I've called you all here for a matter of great importance," Dumbledore began. "As you all know, your mothers all went to Hogwarts and became powerful witches. Before they died, they each left you an heirloom, and it has come to my attention that you all have reached the proper age to receive them."

Dumbledore took out eight black boxes from his desk and placed them in front of us.

"Nicole," Dumbledore said. "You may open yours first since you are the eldest."

I looked hesitantly at the box in front of me. With shaking fingers, I opened it to reveal tiny gold hoop earrings.  
"They're beautiful," I said. "I can put them on, right?"

"Of course," Dumbledore said. "They belong to you."

I took out my plastic studs, and put in the golden hoops.

"Lovely," Dumbledore said. "There should be a note too."

I looked around in the box and found a folded up piece of paper.

I unfolded it with care and read outloud:

_Dearest Nicole,_

_I entrusted Dumbledore with this task of restoring my earrings to you. Your father gave them to me the day you were born; therefore, they reminded me of you always. Even in the darkest times, it seems you were always there to reassure someone. Even at your little age. I see a leader in you, my child, as I was before you. Whatever you are, know that I will be forever proud of you._

_Mom_

"My father gave them to her?" I asked after reading it.

"Yes," Dumbledore said.

"What was her name?" I asked.

"Elizabeth," he said.

Elizabeth was my _mom_? I nearly stopped breathing.

"Are you okay?" Tamora asked.

"Fine," I said.

"Suzanne," Dumbledore said, not worrying about me. He was going oldest to youngest, it was now apparent.

Suzanne didn't hesitate with her box, but she opened it with care. I beautiful silver ring lay inside. In the center, there was a pretty green stone with a white lily painted on it.

"Oh my God," Suzanne said, picking it up gently, and putting it on her right ring finger.

I reached for her hand so I could see it clearly. "It's beautiful," I said.

"Lilies are my favorite flower," she said. "Do you think that's a coincidence?"

"I couldn't tell you, honestly," Dumbledore said.

Suzanne, finally remembering that there might be a note in the box, fished around until she found it. She read out loud like I had.

_Sweet Suzanne,_

_When I first knew of you, my life changed forever. You were such a happy baby, that I often felt sick when I wasn't around you. I could see a passion in your eyes that I never had myself._

_I hope you live a happy life,_

_Mother_

"What was my mom's name?" Suzanne asked.

"Liliah," Dumbledore said.

"Which would explain the lily ring," I said.

"Yeah," Suzanne said. I could tell she still had something on her mind, though.

"Rosalyn," Dumbledore said.

Rosalyn lifted the lid of her box like it was any box. Her eyes widened at her find. She lifted out a diamond bracelet, encrusted in silver, and slid it onto her wrist.

"How expensive you do you think that thing is? I Ravyn asked.

"Probably more than me," Rosalyn said, unfolding her note.

She read:

_Rosalyn,_

_I will never forget the way you looked at me when I first held you in my arms. You were so small, that I was afraid you would crumble away in my arms. You had the bluest eyes I ever saw; so beautiful, yet so fragile. You just looked at me…and then you smiled. They say babies so young can't smile._

_You smiled._

She didn't have to sign it. I could tell it meant the world to Rosalyn just to see her mother's handwriting.

"I can keep the note, right?" she asked.

"Yes, of course," Dumbledore said.

Rosalyn read it to herself, and then folded it and put it in her lap.

"Her name was Isolde," Dumbledore said. "You look just like her." Rosalyn smiled.

"Tamora," Dumbledore said. Tamora was older than Wolfgang by ten seconds or something miniscule like that.

She opened hers, and inside was an armlet. A very strange armlet. A white rose was on one end, but the stem was the silver body of a snake, ending with the head.

She didn't know what to make of it really.

"That's awesome," Wolfgang said. "It would've been cooler if the rose was red, though."

Tamora nodded, then took out her note and read.

_Lovely Tamora,_

_My sweet young girl. Every time I saw you, my heart leapt because you loved to laugh so. I remember taking you home with me, and the first thing you did was laugh at our old cat, Murphy, who really was funny-looking. I always knew when he was near because you would laugh whenever you saw him, and that was always before me._

_I love you,_

_Mother_

Tamora took the letter in her hands and held it to her. I don't think she ever wanted to let go of it. She didn't really know what to do with the armlet, so I helped her out (I was sitting right next to her).

Wolfgang came next. When she opened it, she cheered, saying "I knew it! I knew it!"

It was the same armlet as Tamora, only the rose was red. How ironic, yet appropriate. Of course, it was on her arm in an instant.

Wolfgang found her letter and read it.

_Honorable Wolfgang,_

_My little prankster. You always were thinking of ways to have fun with your surroundings. You certainly kept my on my toes. I want you to know that I never named you Wolfgang. It was a name given to you by a good friend of mine, and it stuck. Your true name is Giselle, a name befitting of you._

_I love you,_

_Mother_

"Giselle?" Wolfgang asked. "She named me _Giselle_?"

"I don't know," I said. "It seems kind of…you."

She glared at me.

"Cassandra was a very classical woman," Dumbledore said. "She believed in names that were old and beautiful. And the names she bestowed on you two certainly were."

I think Wolfgang felt a little better at being named Giselle after that.

Ravyn was next. She tore into her box like there was no fucking tomorrow, and she was certainly happy to find what was inside. A gothic choker. We all should've known.

Ravyn read her note.

_Ravyn,_

_Named after the darkest bird in the night sky, you were anything but. You were the light of my life, always happy as can be. I never once was saddened when you were around. You always had a way to lighten my spirits. From the moment I saw you, I knew you'd be beautiful._

_I know I was right._

_Mom_

Ravyn smiled. The choker was so intricately beaded that she couldn't put it on herself. Rosalyn helped her. And oh my God did she look good in it.

"Was my mom Goth too?" Ravyn asked.

"Yes she was," Dumbledore said. "Her name was Zelda. She had black hair until she was about sixteen, and then it turned a striking silver."

Ravyn looked unsure about that.

"It wasn't silver like my hair," Dumbledore reassured (I think) her. "It was beautiful, almost like the stars or even the moon."

Ravyn was happy to hear that.

"Besides, a lot of anime have silver-ish hair too," I said, trying to cheer her up further.

"You're right," Ravyn said. "Awesome!"

Some people laughed, while others rolled their eyes.

Victoria was hesitant to open hers like I'd been, but we coaxed her, and inside was a gold chain with a (gold) cross.

"Helena never took that off," Dumbledore said. "I always thought she was buried in it, but I guess not."

Victoria put on the necklace and read the note.

_Victoria,_

_I was never one to judge God's plans for me. And when I was told of you, I knew I'd name you Victoria, after your aunt who is now parted from this earth. When you were born, I saw her, my sister Victoria, so now that you are christened with the name, you may now be your own beautiful person._

_May God bless you, my daughter._

_Mom_

When Emilina opened hers, it was as if she were opening a proposal box. Inside were two gold hairpins with yellow roses at one end. I put them in her hair as she read her note.

_Beautiful Emilina,_

_Once so helpless, now so strong. I never in my wildest dreams imagined you would be such a loving, tolerant child. I still don't know where you got those traits, but I am so happy that you have them. You will forever be in the hearts of others. And I hope one day, we will meet again._

_And never give in._

_Mom_

"What does she mean we'll meet again?" Emilina asked. "She'd dead, we can't meet again."

"Engracia was a poet of sorts. Everything she said and wrote had a deeper meaning," Dumbledore said.

"So what does she mean?" Emilina asked again.

"I think she means that if she'll meet you again in heaven," Suzanne said, always useful for interpretation.

"Now that that's sorted," Rosalyn said. "What could Engracia possibly mean by 'never give in'?"

"I don't know," Suzanne said. "It could be anything, really."

"Guess we'll find out soon enough," Kherington said.

We all nodded.

Kherington was last to open her gift since she was the youngest. It was a fact that she loathed, but was tolerant of. It was a strange relationship.

Inside her box was a gold anklet, all the faces of the moon. It was cool to me, but no one really knew what significance it had to anything. Kherington put it on, and moved her foot so she could see it sparkle.

"Shiny," Emilina and Ravyn both said.

We all laughed.

Kherington read her note.

_My dear, Kherington,_

_It was I who knew first of you, as well as all the others. Please know that I loved you more than anything, even after it all. Soon, you will know, and I hope you understand. I've made horrible decisions in my life, and I don't want that to affect you. Please know that everything I did, I did for you._

_Mother_

"She seems almost…scary," I said.

"Yeah, she kind of does," Kherington agreed.

"Your mother, Cybele was an analytical woman. As she said, she made some bad decisions in her life," Dumbledore said.

"Like what?" Kherington asked.

"It's best that you find that out for yourself," Dumbledore said. "Now that you all have your gifts, you must know what they are. They will all protect you, as well as keep your powers at bay."

"Powers?" I asked. "What powers?"

"The powers you inherited from your mothers. They were both the youngest and most powerful witches in the Order of the Phoenix. They were truly a spectacle when they were together," Dumbledore said.

"What powers did we inherit?" I asked.

"Nicole, you inherited your mother's Power of the Mind. She could read others emotions, as I am aware you can already do, as well as sense whenever someone she was close to was in trouble..

"Suzanne, you inherited Earth, probably one of the hardest elements to master. Liliah was very skilled with it, as I'm sure you will be soon enough. She could grow things in an instant, as well as revive dead plants. She was working to revive animals and humans too, but she never achieved it."

"Then I will," Suzanne said.

I nearly cried I was so proud of her.

Dumbledore smiled at her before continuing, "Rosalyn, you have the power over Ice, which as you know, is extremely cold and can pierce through anything when used correctly."

"That would explain why her hands are always so cold," Ravyn said.

"That's precisely it," Dumbledore said.

Rosalyn seemed almost embarrassed.

"Ravyn, you have power over Darkness," Dumbledore said.

"What a surprise," I said sarcastically.

Everyone giggled, and Ravyn smiled triumphantly.

"You can completely engulf your opponents in darkness, as well as draw energy from the night. You can be invisible too, but it only works at night, since you have to cover yourself in shadow."

Ravyn perked up at 'invisible' and slouched at 'it only works at night'.

"Tamora and Wolfgang," Dumbledore said. "You contradict each other. Tamora has power over Water, and Wolfgang has power over Fire."

"Sweet," Wolfgang said.

Dumbledore continued, "Tamora, you can channel the energy in your body, and manipulate water anywhere and make it do your bidding. Wolfgang, you can do the same, only with fire. But you can also create it in your hands, since you have fire energy running through you.

"Victoria can control Air. She can make the wind die or build, and even fly."

"Lucky bitch," I mumbled at the flying comment.

"Emilina is a necromancer," Dumbledore said. "She can see and contact the dead."

"Lovely," Emilina said.

"And finally, Kherington is a Seer. Pretty self-explanatory."

Kherington beamed.

"Now, the reason why I'm telling you all this is because of what your capable of. You didn't inherit a little bit of their powers, you inherited _all of it_. When they died, it was bestowed on you, which means you possess great power within, and when triggered, it can all be let out in a torrent of destruction. If that happens, you will be obliterated. Which is why I myself will be teaching you individually to control it."

"What would happen if you don't teach us?" Emilina asked.

"It would get triggered, and kill you. No matter what."

"Oh, that's a scary thought," Ravyn said.

"Yes, and you all will no longer have one class. I may have to teach some of you together, just with the way your powers are. You will be notified tomorrow when you will be taught by me. You may all go back to your rooms now," Dumbledore said.

We all left his office wearing our gifts ad holding our letters tight in our hands.


	6. Nightmares and Dreamscapes

_Chapter 6_

_Nicole_

"They even have insanely accurate diagrams in here," Rosalyn stated, flipping through the pages of a Sex Ed. textbook.

She and I were the only ones in my Slytherin sisters' room. The others were all at dinner. Rosalyn and I had decided to skip and pig out on Doritos and Dr. Pepper instead.

"Really?" I asked. "I wanna see."

I grabbed the book from her and looked for myself.

"You weren't kidding," I said afterwards.

She snatched it back, "I don't know why Professor Vargas gives us those lame-ass abstinence stickers."

"I know," I said. "Like any of us are gonna follow that. I mean really, what are we, fucking ten years old?"

Rosalyn laughed, "It's like we're taking an oath to stay pure or some such bullshit."

"Roz," I said. "We are."

She narrowed her eyes, "Then I had my fingers crossed when I took it."

"Have you broken it yet," I said, referring to the 'oath'.

"Not yet," Rosalyn said in confidence, tossing the textbook on Wolfgang's bed.

"But you've wanted to," I said.

"Hell yeah I've wanted to," she said. "I still do, in fact."

"With L?" She'd told me about him earlier.

"More than anything," she said. "Every time I see him, I want it more."

"How many times has that been exactly?" I asked.

"I don't know, a lot. He's in practically every one of my classes. And he always sits next to me. I don't mind that part, he's sexy, but it's torture."

"I think you have a problem," I told her.

"Oh just wait until you meet someone. You'll understand," Rosalyn said.

"I have met someone, remember?" I'd told her about Tristan too.

"Oh yeah."

"I don't see him that much, and surprisingly, I don't want _that_. Well I do, but not right away. What I really want to do is kiss him for hours," I said.

"Do you have any idea how love struck you sound right now?" Rosalyn asked.

"Yes, I'm fully aware of that."

"Okay, just as long as you are," Rosalyn ended it there.

We heard giggling coming toward the room. I thought at first that our sisters were back, but it turned out it was just Bree and Regina De La Court, laughing about something stupid and bitchy.

"What do you know about them?" I asked Rosalyn when they passed.

"They're bitches," she said. "What else is there to know?"

"I don't know. It's just amazing to me that some are cool like Angie, but others like them are complete…bitches," I couldn't think of a better word.

"The whole family is a swarm of locusts, Nicole," Rosalyn said. "They were probably here back when _Dumbledore _was a kid."

"Do you think our moms were friends with any of them?" I asked, wishing I could look at the gold hoops in my ears.

"I would bet money on it if I had any," she said.

"They probably didn't do as much crazy shit as we do," I said.

"Probably not," she said. "For some reason, I can't picture Isolde Malloy doing anything overly crazy."

"How'd you know that's what her last name was?" I asked.

"Because it's _my_ last name," she said it in a "no duh" tone.

"I know, but you can just as easily have your father's last name," I said.

"I don't think so," Rosalyn said.

"Hey, wait a minute," I said, my mind flashing to the earlier events that happened earlier that day. "Dumbledore said they were the most powerful witches in the Order of the Phoenix, right?"

"Right," she said.

"So, there's bound to be plenty of books about them," I said.

"I guess, but most of them are probably in the Restricted Section since they were so powerful."

"You're probably right," I said. "It's gonna be a real ass to get in there."

"Ravyn can enclose herself in shadow," Rosalyn suggested.

"She doesn't know who to do that yet," I said.

"So," Rosalyn said. "She can ask Dumbledore to teach her first thing."

"That'll work." I wasn't one to argue with Rosalyn overly much. Besides, she was right.

"Okay, so once Ravyn can do it, we'll ask her to sneak in there and check," she said.

"Yes," I agreed. "And who knows, she may have night vision too."

_Elizabeth/_Nicole

_The sun shone along the ground, creating the first warm day in months._

Where am I?

_The countryside was blooming with flowers and buds of every color imaginable. The trees danced on the wind, and no one had ever seen a sky so blue._

Oh God, not another Easter tale.

_But those who knew best knew it was just calm before the storm._

"_Love."_

Who the hell is that?

"_Love."_

_I called to her, knowing exactly where she was, but still calling to see if she'd answer._

I saw a woman walking the field, her green eyes searching. She had bright blonde hair down to her waist and she was wearing a flowing white dress.

"_Here," I finally got my answer. I found her among the willows near the pond._

Even if this place wasn't real, it was very beautiful.

_Cassandra looked up at me as she sat in the grass, previously watching the ducks swim along the edge, not daring to touch land. I could feel that she envied them a little._

"_I wish I could join them," she said._

Wow, this lady ranked right up there with Victoria in terms of beauty. Her hair was equally long as the blonde, but it was rich and the color of milk chocolate. Yum! Her eyes were a bit greener than the blonde's too. And I could see small specks of brown in there too. Her skin was very pale, but there was some color to it. She kind of looked like Tamora and Wolfgang.

"_I know you do," I said, offering her my hand._

_She took it, and I helped her up._

What did these people have with dresses? The brunette had one a long skirted brown dress that somehow brought out the brown in her eyes.

"_Is there any news?" Cassandra asked._

"_Cybele said she could have a vision any time now. You know how she gets when one is close."_

"_I'm afraid I do," she said._

_I held my arm out to her, and she took it in her own as we walked to the manor which was about a mile away. We took our time._

"_You know it'll be about Voldemort, whatever it is," I said._

These people say his name too. I like them already.

"_Elizabeth, I'm frightened by what she will prophecy next," Cassandra said._

Elizabeth?

Cassandra?

Cybele?

What the fuck was this?

_I could feel her fear by the very mention of it._

"_Don't be," I told her._

"_I can't help it. I have no powers of my own to defend myself," she said._

"_Sure you do, Love," I said, using her nickname._

"_What is it then?"_

"_I haven't the faintest idea," I said, trying to make her laugh._

_She did._

Hey, the bitch stole my line!

_We heard galloping then; the sound of well-kept horses. Suddenly, Helena, riding her favorite chestnut mare, Magic, cantered out of some trees nearby._

Now Helena's here? Either this is some kind of trick, or it's the most fucked up dream I've ever had.

_Wearing her full English riding clothes, Helena rode Magic over to us and stopped._

Magic wore the full English horse get-up too.

_As she smiled down on us, her loose hair bouncing underneath her helmet, I asked, "having fun?"_

"_Riding Magic is always fun," Helena beamed back._

_I felt emotions of excitement and a touch of fear coming from where Helena had come._

_Liliah, riding Helena's dark bay mare, Star, came out where she had._

Oh my God! Would the names ever end?

_When she came over to us, in similar clothes as Victoria, she snapped, "that is the last time we race through one of the moors."_

"_I thought it was fun," Helena said._

"_So did I," Liliah took off her helmet. "But Star didn't like it at all. She tried to throw me."_

Liliah's hair was long and dark, her skin pale. I could see her brown eyes. They looked almost like…Suzanne's?

"_Is that why you were so slow?" Helena asked Liliah._

"_Yes."_

"_I'm sorry to hear that you had such a rough time, Liliah," Cassandra said, smiling._

"_Thanks, Love."_

Why did everyone call her that?

_Liliah and Helena were horse lovers as well as champions in Cross Country and Show Jumping. We loved to go to their competitions whenever we could._

"_What's going on with the others?" I asked. I may be able to sense emotions, but I couldn't tell what people were doing. It reminded me of stalking._

Seriously, this is pretty fucked up.

"_Nothing major, I don't think," Liliah said. "I think Engracia and Cybele are talking to some of their weird ancient relatives or something, and Zelda and Isolde are either writing or drawing. It's a pretty slow day."_

Again with the names…

"_Well, at least we know nothings wrong, yet," I said._

"_Yes," said Helena. "I kind of like days like this where we can just do whatever."_

"_These days are rare is these times," Cassandra said. "We should enjoy them while we can."_

"_Nicely put, Cassandra," I said._

"_Thank you."_

"_Don't I know how rare they are," Liliah said. "I think Earth is tired of me by now."_

"_An element never gets tired of anyone," Helena said._

"_Probably not, but I can't help but wonder," Liliah said._

_Cassandra looked to the setting sun, "It's getting late. We should go inside."_

"_Oh," Helena said. "I still have to feed the horses."_

"_I'll help," Liliah said quickly. Helena looked less worried._

"_Just be careful," I said._

"_We will," Helena said before galloping off._

"_Don't eat without us," Liliah said before following her._

_Cassandra and I rushed to the old manor to lay and wait._

I woke with a sudden jolt. What the fuck had that been? Everyone else was sound asleep. Even Éponine and that was something. I looked at my alarm clock: 3 a.m. Shit! My eyes flashed across Suzanne, and I noticed she had a book propped open on her chest. She'd probably been reading when she fell asleep. I got out of bed and took it off her hest, being careful to place her bookmark in it. It was the Edgar Allen Poe book that Luke Everett had given her. She was mostly done with it. She must've really liked it. I put it on her nightstand before going back to my own bed. I turned over in my bed and closed my eyes, hoping no dreams would come.

_Ravyn (Earlier that night)_

I had a dirty little secret, and it surprised me that no one had even suspected. I lay in bed awake, watching my clock change. Once it was midnight, it would be time. I had finally gotten some ear plugs, so Margaret was no longer a problem, and everyone else was sleeping. I was thankful that my roommates were heavy sleepers. They wouldn't hear a thing.

When midnight finally rolled around, I got out of bed as quietly as I could. Even though they were heavy sleepers, you could never be too careful. I crept out of the room, being careful with the creaky door, and went down the hall normally. What most people in the other Houses don't realize is that after hours, if you're still in your House, no one gives a shit if you're walking around or not. Or at least, Snape didn't.

I went to the Common Room, not expecting him yet, but I was surprised to hear him when I entered.

"Hello."

It was a small whisper in the air, but I heard it very clear. I followed it to the chairs in front of the fire where we always seemed to sit, and took my seat. Aiden looked back at me from the opposite chair.

Ever since our first meeting, we'd been coming to the Common Rooms at this time. I was a little sleep deprived, but I'd make it up on the weekend. We knew a little about each other, but certainly not a lot. I wanted to know as much as I could about him, and I didn't know why. Maybe it was because he was just so damn hot!

"Hello," I said back to him, trying not to smile too wide. Being around him tended to make me act like an idiot.

"You look tired," he seemed concerned.

"I am, but nothing major," I told him.

"Maybe we shouldn't meet like this every night."

"No," I exclaimed a little too loudly and quickly.

He didn't argue, "okay." I didn't know for sure, but I thought he didn't argue because he wanted to know about me too.

"Okay, where did we leave off last night?" I asked.

"We were talking about our families," he said.

"Oh, right." How did he remember that?

"Well," I began. "The oldest is Nicole. She's kind of controlling sometimes, but she makes me laugh."

"Is she that smart-ass Gryffindor?" he asked, making me giggle.

"Is the smart-ass Gryffindor blonde?" I asked.

"Yes."

"Then yeah, that's her."

"She told Professor Flitwick that he should go to a gay bar," he told me.

"Oh my God!" I said. "Really?"

"That doesn't sound like something she'd do?" he asked.

"No, that sounds _exactly_ like something she'd do."

"I sure thought it was funny."

"I wish I was there," I said.

"Okay, who's next?" he asked, referring to my family.

"Next is Suzanne. She's a little quiet, but she's really funny when you get her going on something."

"What House is she in?" he asked.

"Gryffindor," I said.

"She's the short brunette who's friends with the smart-ass," he said.

"Yep," I said, giggling again. "Next is Rosalyn. She's not controlling like Nicole, but she has some authority, and she watches anime with me back home."

"She's your tall roommate, right?" he asked.

"Uh huh," I said."Okay, after me is Tamora. She's kind of the pretty bookworm who is the voice of reason," I said.

"She one of your roommates?" he asked.

"Yes."

"I've seen her."

Oddly, I didn't think that was creepy.

"Next is Wolfgang, her twin. She pulls pranks with me."

"Now that you mention it, I think I've heard about some of the shit you guys have pulled," he said.

"I wouldn't call our pranks _shit_, but…"

"I wouldn't either," he said quickly to cover his (very sexy) ass. "But some of the teachers would beg to differ."

"I'm sure they would," I said. "Then there's Victoria. We like to call her the _shame-wizard_ because whenever one of us curses, she says 'shame' and it gets annoying at times."

"It sounds funny to me," he said.

"You haven't been around it for 15 years," I countered.

"You've been cursing for that long?" he asked jokingly.

"You get the idea," I said, smiling. "Emilina is next. She's kind of a goof-ball, and she's the only one who's in Hufflepuff," I said.

"What the hell is a Hufflepuff?" he asked, quoting a very funny musical the Drama people put on a couple years back.

"I want a T-shirt that says that," I told him.

"I think everyone does," he said.

"Okay, then last is Kherington. She's in Ravenclaw," I said.

"Is she a real smart-ass?" he asked.

"Well, she's more of a smart-ass without the 'ass,'" I said.

"Oh, I see," he said.

"Well, that's all of them," I said.

I didn't pressure him about his brother. I'd asked yesterday, but it was a touchy subject. Don't get me wrong, I really wanted to know what his deal was, but I wasn't going to push the issue. I really liked him; I didn't want him not talking to me anymore. What the hell kind of school year would that be?

"What's your favorite song?" he asked me.

"That's a toughie," I said. "I really like _My Chemical Romance_ and other hard rock stuff. Seriously, I couldn't tell you. What's your favorite song?"

"_Know Your Enemy_ by _Green Day_," he told me.

"I love their song, _American Idiot_," I said. "Even though I'm American."

"Have you ever been?" he asked.

"Yeah, we went on a vacation to Florida once, but I didn't like it much. It was too sunny. We all want to go to New York next."

"I've never been there, but I've always wanted to go. My dream would be to be the lead singer of a rock band," he said.

"That's awesome," I said. "I would love to do that."

"You seem like the heavy metal type," he said.

"I am," I said without hesitation. "I suck at singing, though."

"No one in music these days can sing, really. It's all about the lyrics."

"I guess so," I said.

"Where do you all live in the summer?" he asked.

"We live on a huge estate with our guardian, Ruth," I said.

"Where is that?" he asked.

"Near Oxford," I said.

"I live in Wales," he said.

"That's cool. Suzanne and Nicole say that Wales is the artist's dream. Whatever that means."

"The landscapes are pretty there. That's what they mean."

"How did you know that?" I asked.

"I know Wales," he said.

"You sound like Wolfgang," I said.

"There's something I don't get," he said.

"What?" I asked.

When I talk to you now, you don't look like a prankster."

"What do I look like then?" I asked, unconsciously moving closer to him.

"You look like…a star," he said shyly.

"A star?" I asked smoothly.

"Yeah, it's something about you. I'm not quite sure what it is, but it draws me to you."

I smiled slyly and leaned even closer, keeping my face a few inches from his.

"Does it draw you to me now?" I asked almost silently, smiling a little.

Aiden didn't have to answer me. He closed the remaining space between us with a soft kiss. I wasn't that experienced when it came to kissing, so at the moment, I wasn't quite sure what to do, so I just sat still like a helpless girl. We just kept our lips together until he removed his and looked me in the eyes. I remembered at that moment that I wasn't a helpless girl. I was a woman, damn it!

I took his face in my hands and crushed my lips against his with a growing urgency. It felt almost like a release to finally kiss him (with feeling). Aiden picked up on my mood, and kissed me back with force. The position between the two chairs was a little uncomfortable, but I don't think we really noticed. My arms reached back behind his neck, both of our hands getting tangled in each other's hair.

My head began to swim, but even then I didn't want to stop. It was like I was high, but a sweeter high, more pleasurable. I would take this against sharpies any day.

Yes, I was fully aware that making out in the common rooms was probably the dumbest idea in the world, especially if your being loud about it. I couldn't help it, the more I kissed him, the more I wanted him, it was an ache that I needed soothed. And besides, he wasn't breaking apart from me either.

I understood my feelings like a slap. Lust. I understood the ache now, why I couldn't sooth it no matter how much I kissed him. I wanted him. I mean _really_ wanted him. I kind of liked it.

I broke away first, not really wanting to, but any more and I would probably be unconscious from lack of air. We both breathed heavily, locking our foreheads together.

I managed to smile at him through my heavy breathing. He took his fingers out of my hair, and stroked my cheeks with his thumbs.

"We must say goodnight," he said.

I stifled the _aww_ I wanted to let out.

"I know," I said instead.

"Until tomorrow, then," he said, kissing my lips one last time before disappearing into the dark Slytherin hall. I walked back to my room, feeling all sorts of emotions. Happiness. Anxiety. Warmth. A little Buzzed.

And yes, oh yes, I still felt the ache.


	7. The Fine Art of Mind Stalking

_Chapter 7_

_Rosalyn_

Every single morning I woke at 7 a.m., and every single morning I wished I could sleep more.

I woke up everyone but Wolfgang, and we woke her up in the usual fashion. You'd think she'd get used to it by now. Apparently not.

At breakfast, I wasn't expecting much. I was still a little tired, and I had the lesson Dumbledore was preparing for me on my mind. But there was something I forgot to tell my sisters.

"Guys," I said.

They all looked up at me expectantly.

"I have news," I said.

"What is it?" Wolfgang asked.

"The other day, Nicole, Suzanne, Winnie, and Angie and I were in the bathroom, playing _I Never_ and…"

"Did you skip class?" Margaret asked.

"Yeah, but who cares, it was Arithmancy," I told them, laughing it off. "Anyway, Winnie admitted that she liked Snape."

"Really?" Ravyn asked.

"Would I lie to you?" I asked.

"Yes," they all said in unison, almost pissing me off.

"When it was important?" I asked.

"No," they all said.

"Okay, that's settled." I ended it.

The other girls buzzed about Winnie and Snape. I rolled my eyes at all of them.

Soon, I noticed a guy (pretty sexy) walking over to us.

"Hey, Ravyn," I called.

She glanced up from her Fruit Loops.

"Isn't that the guy you were telling me about?" I cocked my head in his direction.

When she looked, she turned back to me and said, "Aiden? Yeah that's him."

"I think he wants to sit with us," I said.

Aiden came over to Ravyn saying, "hey, beautiful."

"Hey, handsome," Ravyn said back.

Aiden bent down and kissed her on the cheek.

"Sit with us," Ravyn said, grinning.

"Sure," he seemed extremely happy to sit next to her.

"Are you guys…dating?" Wolfgang asked them.

They glanced at each other, and said in unison, "uh huh."

"You don't waste any time, do you?" she asked them.

"Nope," Ravyn said.

"Hmm," Wolfgang said before going back to her…I didn't even know what that was.

I looked at Ravyn and her new boyfriend (how the fuck did that happen?) and figured I had little say in the matter. I disregarded them with a shrug.

That was enough of an approval for Ravyn. She laced her fingers in his hand that rested on the table and they looked at each other longingly.

"Why don't you just make-out?" I asked. "I can tell you want to."

"There are professors all over the damn place," Ravyn said, blushing.

She did have a point there.

As if on cue, a warm "hello, Rosalyn" filled the air around me. I recognized immediately who it was.

I looked behind me to greet L, who looked tired as ever, but still so hot. My legs began to shake from hints of desire.

"Hi, L," I said cheerfully.

"Do you mind if I join you?" he asked, looking me in the eyes.

"No," I said quickly. "Go right ahead."

L sat next to me (no surprise). My sisters didn't eye him like they had before. They barely looked up at all. They were too engulfed in their eating.

It occurred to me that in the little time I'd known L (and in all of my classes he was in), I never really had a long talk with him. I guess it didn't really surprise me, since talking to people outside my family and close friends wasn't something I felt very comfortable with, but it bothered me a little.

I didn't move my head, but I moved my eye so that I could look at him without being _too_ stalker-ish.

He wasn't paying any attention to me (or so it appeared). He wasn't paying much attention to his food either (probably because he could eat it with his fingers). He just looked around the Great Hall, observing everything. It was like he was looking for exit routes in case something were to happen, which I knew was pretty ridiculous, but he just looked so damn hot doing it.

I didn't think I'd ever wanted sex from someone I barely knew. It was a foreign thing, but it made me feel good and somehow _mature _about things. I would never admit that little detail to anyone, unless of course I was old and had nothing better to do.

"I hope I don't offend you by saying this," L said, making me wonder if he saw me staring. He didn't look like he did.

"You look so lonely in the classes I have with you," he said.

"You watch me in class?" I asked cheekily.

"Well, no. Not really. I just happen to glance your way every now and again, and I notice that you're never sitting with anyone."

"I don't know anyone," I said. I was going to say that I didn't _like_ anyone in those classes, but decided against it.

"Well, if you would like, you may sit with me. I know we don't know each other well, but I would like to get to know you. That is, if you would also like to get to know me."

Dude, you have no idea.

"Sure," I said, sounding casual. "I'll sit with you."

"I don't want you to feel like you have to…" he said.

"No, I want to."

"Good," he said, deciding to eat a strawberry. It was all very _Death Note_-y.

Just as he said "good," raw lust sent shivers up and down my spine.

_Nicole_

Victoria, Suzanne, and I had filled Éponine and Angie in on the events that happened the night before. It was after breakfast and we all were ready earlier than usual, so I decided now would be a good time as ever to tell them.

"Why didn't you tell us this last night?" Angie asked.

"Because we were all tired," I said.

"Besides, you were asleep when we got back," Suzanne said. "We weren't going to wake you up just to be like '_hey, we got jewelry and you didn't. Ha ha!_'"

We all giggled.

"I guess," Angie said.

"When will the lessons be?" Éponine asked.

"Don't know," I said.

"That's a real pain-in-the-ass," Angie said.

"Tell me about it," Victoria said after saying "shame". "I have to go through the entire day not knowing when I'll be dragged out of my class, not to mention…"

"Stop griping, Victoria," I said. "No one wants to hear it."

"Well, I want to say it," Victoria said.

"Well, that's just too bad, isn't it?" I asked.

"Yeah, bad for _you_."

"Guys," Suzanne said to Victoria and me. "Take a chill pill, both of you."

We shut up.

During Muggle Studies, Professor Moss was going on about the American Revolution for God know what reason. We lived in _England_, not America. We didn't give a fuck about who the second president was or how they bought half the damn country from some bullshit place. It wasn't important to us.

Suzanne and I were doing a good job of staying awake, but everyone around us was dropping like flies (I hate those damn things). I didn't know if I could take much more of that shit, even if my mother was from Texas.

Somewhere in-between Thomas Jefferson and something about a hooker dude, the class door opened, and Professor McGonagall walked in, stern-faced. Professor Moss must've thought she was coming for her because she had a look on her face that clearly said 'I-didn't-do-it'.

"I'm here for Nicole Wilkinson and Suzanne Singer," Professor McGonagall said.

I glanced at Suzanne, and she nodded in agreement. We were going to our lesson with Dumbledore. We didn't waste time either. We gathered our stuff with one move and hurried to Professor McGonagall, genuinely grateful to be out of there.

We walked down the empty halls of Hogwarts, the only sound being Professor McGonagall's shoes.

"Where are we going?" asked Suzanne.

"To Dumbledore's office," she said. "You will be exempt from Muggle Studies thus forth. You are to report to where I'm talking you. The same rules still apply to you, however. If you are late or disruptive, you will be disciplined. Am I clear?"

"Yes, Professor," Suzanne and I said in unison. Give me a break.

Once outside Dumbledore's office, McGonagall opened the door and practically shoved us both inside. Dumbledore wasn't there.

"Professor Dumbledore will be with you momentarily," Professor McGonagall said. "Until then, wait here and don't do anything foolish." She glared at me as she said the last few words. I just smiled.

McGonagall sighed loudly, and then walked back to the school. Suzanne and I were alone.

"What's the plan?" Suzanne asked.

"We wait," I said, sitting in one of the chairs placed in front of Dumbledore's desk for us and putting my books beside it.

"I don't like that plan," my sister said.

"You got any better ideas?" I asked, raising one of my eyebrows.

Shrugging, Suzanne put her own books on the ground beside the chair next to me and sat.

A few minutes of silence went by, and still no Dumbledore. I was beginning to wonder if McGonagall (knowing that Dumbledore would be out for the day) had brought us there so that we wouldn't disrupt any classes. When I suggested that to Suzanne, she merely said, "I doubt it, Nicole."

A few more minutes went by, and suddenly, I couldn't take it anymore.

"Where is that old man?" I asked, standing up.

"Closer than you think," Dumbledore's voice sounded as he walked in through the door.

"What were you doing back there, Professor Dumbledore?" Suzanne asked.

"Taking a walk," he said. "It's such a lovely day out."

Normal people would've been embarrassed by my little display, but then again, I'm not so normal. I just sat back down in the chair, not blushing at all.

"So, shall we begin?" Dumbledore said, sitting at his own desk.

"Nicole," he said, looking at me. "We'll start with sensing where people are since you can already sense emotions."

"Okay," I said.

"Close your eyes," he told me. I did (unwillingly).

"Where is your sister, Tamora?" he asked.

"I don't know," I said. I didn't know everyone's schedules. I wasn't a stalker.

"Sense her emotions. Feel where she is," Dumbledore said.

I took a deep breath, and tried to find her.

In my mind, I sensed the emotions of those around me. Suzanne was feeling excitement. Dumbledore was feeling determination. I knew that wouldn't help me. I looked beyond them, out of the office and into the school where emotions were thrown at me left and right, emotions of teachers, students, and even animals. It was all so much, that I nearly fell down. I opened my eyes to escape.

"There's too many," I said.

"You know what she looks like," he said.

"Yes," I said (no duh!).

"Look for her. You know what emotions aren't hers. You know the composition of her body. Ignore the other emotions. Send them all away from you. They are not important. Tamora is," he said.

I nodded, deciding to try again.

I closed my eyes after a deep breath, and again, I was plunged into the world of emotions. I went into the school, searching. I could see the emotions of others, the different colors they made. The emotions were like different colored roped of energy that wrapped around people like a cartoon outline. It was almost mesmerizing.

I could feel Tamora somewhere in that mess of color. Where she was exactly was another story.

Dumbledore was right; I could sense her body composition. It was like she was the light at the end of the tunnel. All I had to do was follow it.

I went amongst the rooms of Hogwarts, not even looking in them. I had one goal in mind, and that was her. I followed until I could see her clearly. She was in Arithmancy, feeling bored out of her mind. But I didn't stop there like I thought I would. I went directly into her mind, like it was drawing me in, and suddenly, I was seeing through her eyes, looking at Professor Vector, wishing she could just fall asleep. I was hearing his horrible lecture through her ears, and feeling the anxiousness of the proximity of an abnormally cute Slytherin guy a few tables away.

I flung myself out of her dream, returning to the solitude of my own mind. I opened my eyes, my journey over. Dumbledore and Suzanne were looking at me expectantly.

"Did you find her?" Suzanne asked.

"Yes, but that's not all," I said. I explained to them my brief experience into Tamora's mind.

"So you are more powerful," Dumbledore said thoughtfully.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Elizabeth was powerful, yes. But she could never go into anyone's mind like you just did. That's incredible.

I was suddenly embarrassed.

"You're done for today," he said.

"That's all?" I asked.

"That's all you need at this moment," Dumbledore said. "You've already proved to me that you didn't just inherit just you mother's powers. It seems you inherited _more_. I'm going to have to look in on some more challenging things for you."

"Alright," I said. At least I didn't have to do anything more.

"Suzanne," Dumbledore said. "Your turn."

_Suzanne_

The tiniest hint of nervousness hit the pit of my stomach as Dumbledore told me my lesson would begin. I suddenly wished that I'd gone first instead of Nicole, who just had to sit there for the rest of the time we had.

"Suzanne," Dumbledore said my name again. "Have you found any abilities that are related to Earth that you can do?"

He was hoping a milestone would be already crossed with me too, but sadly, I could do nothing.

When I told him that, he didn't seem disappointed at all.

"Good," he said just like he had with Nicole. "This means I can fully get a full perspective of what you can and will do."

I glanced at Nicole, who was smiling reassuringly. I took comfort in that look.

I stood to face Dumbledore.

"We'll begin with growth," he said. He looked to Nicole, saying "will you bring over that pot?" He pointed to a clay pot that sat near a bookshelf. I wondered how we never noticed it before.

Nicole did as she was told, but I knew she was silently cursing him. She gave the pot to Dumbledore, then sat back down.

The pot was filled with soil, and sticking out of it was a dead plant that looked more like a twig than an actual plant.

"Touch the soil," Dumbledore said. "Feel the energy that the plant has."

"But the plant is dead," I told him.

"One life ends, another begins," Dumbledore said.

I didn't say anything more. I placed my pale fingers on the soil in the pot, trying to feel something (anything) in there. I was prepared to feel nothing, but what I really felt were two faint _beats_. Like the beat of a heart. I jerked my hand away, astonished.

"Did you feel it?" Dumbledore asked.

"Feel what?" Nicole asked. She hated being left out of something.

"I felt a heartbeat," I said to no one in particular.

"Yes, that's what you were supposed to feel," Dumbledore said.

"What am I supposed to do now?" I asked.

"Go to the source," he said. "And give it energy. Life energy. Make it grow."

Again, I placed my hand on the soil, and again, I felt the gentle beating. With the connection of my fingers and mind, I felt underneath the soil, into the difficult network of roots that had long since been abandoned by life. I weaved among them until I found (at the base of the plant) what appeared to be a tiny heart. I realized it was the seed that the plant grew from. It was trying to support the plant, but it was going fast and wouldn't last long.

I used my mind to touch the seed, and when I did, green energy sprouted from the seed, transforming the once brown roots into healthy white ones. I could sense the stem and leaves turning green again through the touch, and I opened my eyes.

In the pot was indeed a beautiful green plant.

"Well done," Dumbledore said.

"Holy shit, dude," Nicole said, her mouth hanging open.

Dumbledore glared at her.

Seeing his face, she quickly added, "sorry."

"It's fine, Nicole," he said. "But other professors will not be as generous as I am. I'm simply warning you."

Nicole looked sincere, but I knew she thought he was full of bullshit.

"That concludes your lesson," Dumbledore said.

"That's all?" I asked like Nicole had.

"You may not know this, but between the two of you, a total of 45 minutes has gone by. Besides, class is nearly over. Also, I must take this plant to Professor Sprout now that it is healthy again."

With that, we all left Dumbledore's office, he and us heading in opposite directions.

_Nicole_

In Arithmancy (my next class), I noticed that Rosalyn was strangely absent. I'd seen her at breakfast, so she wasn't sick, and even if she was, someone would've told me by now. There was a chance that she was getting laid (which was very likely despite what people may think about her), but she had eyes for L, and she wouldn't do it this soon in the relationship. The only option left was that she was at her lesson.

Vector was going on about the same thing that Tamora had to sit through, and the word _bored_ didn't even begin to describe me. I was curious about what was going on with Roz, but it wasn't like I could sneak out if class. I could sneak into her mind like I did at my own lesson. I could practice the skill, and Victor would think I was paying attention. It was so perfect!

I relaxed myself, and dug through the pockets in my robes for a pair of sunglasses. I always seemed to have a pair laying around, and it wouldn't look suspicious since the sun was beating down on me.

Sure enough, I found a pair at the bottom of one of the pockets. I slid them on, closed my eyes and concentrated.

It was easier to find her than it was to find Tamora. It was ironic since she was _with_ Tamora. They were both getting a lesson from Dumbledore, but they were outside by the lake. I wondered what the lake had to do with anything.

"Since you both have similar abilities dealing with water, your lesson will be together," Dumbledore said. Rosalyn was already bored. Not that I blamed her. I had a feeling I'd be listening to his voice all day.

"Tamora, we'll start with you," Dumbledore said.

I wanted to be inside Tamora's head to see what it felt like to do whatever she does. I wondered if I could _bounce_ from mind to mind. Of course, I didn't know if it would work, but it was worth a shot. I released myself from Rosalyn's (dark) mind, but not enough for me to go back into my own. I was still in Emotion Land. I was drifting above them now, so I went to Tamora, and went into her mind like I had earlier. It seemed mostly the same as I remembered. She was nervous about going first.

"Tamora," Dumbledore addressed her. "I don't have much experience with Water, but I'll try the best I can to teach you. Now, focus on the water. Beckon it with your hands and arms. Make it come out of the lake, and make it go into this bucket." He brought out a bucket from behind his back. A bit random, but okay. Tamora was thinking the same thing.

Tamora stared at the water, not exactly looking at it, but still seeing it. I understood this was her form of concentration. She put her arms out in front of her, and made a "come here" motion with them. A small area of the lake started to bubble up.

Tamora was breathing evenly, relaxed. Some water shot out of the lake and into the air, zooming around. Tamora moved her arm with it, controlling it. But the control was hard to hold.

"Don't let it drop," Dumbledore told her.

Beads of sweat dripped from her forehead as she controlled it. Her arms started to shake then, so she quickly moved her arm in the direction of the bucked Dumbledore was holding. The water went in without a hitch.

Tamora sighed of relief, and rubbed the sweat off her forehead.

"Well done," Dumbledore said.

Dumbledore turned to Rosalyn now.

"I want you to freeze the water in the bucket," he told her.

I went back to Roz's mind as he said it, and after he finished, she thought, _what the hell?_

"How am I supposed to do that?" she asked him.

"Concentrate," Dumbledore told her before adding, "I'm going to be saying that all day." Tamora nodded in agreement.

"Feel the water on your fingers, and feel it grow cold. Let the coolness of your touch freeze it," Dumbledore concluded.

Rosalyn (not knowing what the hell she was doing) reached her hand out and grazed the water with her fingers. It felt good to her even though she hated water in normal situations.

She stared at it, feeling a strange cooling sensation in her fingers that wasn't there before. She felt the cold from her fingers transfer to the water, and within a few seconds, it was completely frozen.

She removed her hand from the bucket and looked at Dumbledore expectantly.

"Good," he said to her. "Be careful with those fingers of yours. They can easily freeze _people _too. Never lose control over them."

Rosalyn didn't really know how to turn the coldness in her fingers 'off', but she tried thinking of the sun (which she found icky most of the time) and fire. It calmed her fingers until they returned to a normal temperature.

"You both did very well today," Dumbledore said to them both. "I will see you both here again tomorrow."

"Miss Wilkinson," I heard Professor Vector say, bringing my back to my own mind.

"What?" I asked, taking my sunglasses off finally.

"Would you care to answer my question?" he asked.

"What was it again?" I asked.

"You should've been paying attention," he said before glaring at me and moving on to some other lecture. Ass-hole.

I went through the rest of my day looking in on the minds of my sisters. I had to admit that my classes were very boring without them.

In Transfiguration, Rosalyn was there, so we finished up quickly as I told her about my weird mind thing.

"That's beast," she said once I finished. "All I can do is freeze water. If we're in a live or death situation, what good is that going to do me?"

"You can freeze _people_, Roz," I said. "Don't forget that."

"Oh yeah," she said, grinning. "I forgot."

"Ravyn's not here," I noticed.

"Yeah, she isn't," Rosalyn said after looking around for herself. "She must be at her lesson now."

"How can she?" I asked. "Her power is over Darkness."

"The Dungeon has a fuck-load of darkness," Rosalyn said.

I started giggling.

"What?" she asked.

"You said _fuck-load_," I said.

She grinned and rolled her eyes.

"What do you think she's doing?" Rosalyn asked.

"Don't know," I said. "I could find out."

"I wish I could see," Roslyn said. "It might be funny."

I suddenly got an idea, "I don't know if this'll work, but I have a feeling it will."

"What will?" Rosalyn asked.

"Give me your hand," I said.

Rosalyn looked at me like I'd lost my mind.

"Let me explain," I said quickly. "Maybe if I hold your hand, you'll see the same things as me."

"Maybe," she agreed. "But wont we look pretty stupid just holding hands and looking off into space?"

"Good point," I said.

I reached into my robes and took out two hardback books. I gave one to her.

"How'd you fit those in there?" she asked.

"I have no idea," I said. "They just did."

She didn't argue. We both opened our books in front of us, and tilted out heads so we looked like we were reading.

I put my hand underneath the table so no one would see. Roz followed my lead. To make it feel less awkward, I just took her pinky in mine so that it was like a pinky-swear. I figured it would work the same way.

Again, I escaped into the world of emotions.

"Rosalyn?" I called out.

"Whoosh," I heard her say.

I knew we weren't really talking. It was like out minds were.

"This is weird," I heard her say again.

"I can't see you," I said.

"Well, I can see you," she said from right behind me. I spun around, and I saw her there. The same Rosalyn, just glowing striking silver.

"This is _really_ weird," I said.

"You're glowing a weird aqua," she said.

I looked down at myself, and sure enough, my skin and clothes were aqua."

"This kind of reminds me of being underwater," I said.

"Yeah," she said. "I'm floating, and my hair is going bat-shit crazy."

"Mine too?" I asked, referring to my hair.

"Yep."

"We have to find Ravyn," I said.

"I obviously can't." Rosalyn said.

"I know," I said. "I will."

It took me 15 seconds to find her.

"Where is she?" Rosalyn asked.

"In a dark room in the dungeon," I said.

"I knew it!" she seemed pleased.

"Let's go," I said.

We both went to her and found ourselves in her mind. It was like watching a movie.

"Can she hear us?" Rosalyn asked.

"No," I said. "But it would be cool if she could."

She nodded.

Ravyn was standing in the middle of a stereotypical dungeon room with only one small window to let in light. Dumbledore stood at the far side of the room, and even in the dense darkness, Ravyn could see him perfectly.

She was concentration deeply into herself. Dumbledore had told her to look inside for light, and there the darkness would dwell.

Ravyn looked through her mind, and I wondered if she would find us, but she never did. She found the light in the one place I would expect it to be: her heart. There she found memories of all of us back at the manor in Oxford.

They made Roz and me happy too as we remembered them with her.

Once she found the light, it was plain to see the darkness that lingered everywhere like clouds. It was as if her body was corrupted with it, even though she inherited it. But we weren't afraid. The Darkness was there, but it didn't hurt us. It was _good_ somehow, and waiting for her to find it. When Ravyn's mind extended to the dark, it was like opening Pandora's Box. The Darkness poured out of her hands, encircling her. But she wasn't afraid. Rosalyn and I were thrown out of her mind, but we were still in the room with her. We watched the Darkness around her, doing anything she bid it. And we saw her hair. Her once black hair turned into the color of stars. Her hazel eyes were black, controlling the element with ease. She was indeed extremely powerful.

Soon, we heard Dumbledore say, "it can't be…send it back, Ravyn."

Like a switch, Ravyn made the darkness return to her in one motion. It nearly knocked her off balance, but she'd get used to that eventually. Her hair was once again black, her eyes hazel.

"What's wrong, Dumbledore?" she asked.

"Your hair turned a color known only as Starlight," said Dumbledore. Your mother had it, and she controlled the Darkness with as much ease as you just did," he said.

Ravyn smiled slyly.

Rosalyn and I returned to our own heads, and we stared at each other in amazement.

"Holy shit," was all we said before class was over.

I watched the rest of my sister's lessons too. None of them were really that interesting, but they were easier to watch than my boring classes.

Wolfgang and Victoria had their lessons alone like Ravyn had. Wolfgang had to create fire in her hand by finding the source of her fire. It was found in her heart like the Darkness. I was beginning to think that the elements were powered by our hearts, but that made my power all the more confusing.

It was cool to see a bright blue orb pop up in Wolfgang's hand. I was no scientist, but even I knew that was just about as hot as a flame would go. Even Dumbledore was surprised. Wolfgang was happy with herself, and would tell us all later.

Victoria learned to fly, which was amusing, and somehow cool to feel. She, on the other hand, was terrified of flying. She hates roller coasters too, and I found myself getting irritated at her fearfulness, but she couldn't hear me, so I couldn't really help her. Her lesson reminded me of trying to teach a bird to fly, except she didn't use her arms like wings. She got the hang of it (sort of) to where I wasn't mentally laughing quite as hard. She was relieved that no one could see this but Dumbledore. Boy, would she be surprised.

Kherington and Emilina had their lessons together, which kind of surprised me, but oh well.

Emilina was terrified that a spirit would hurt her, even though I'd told her time and time again that they probably wouldn't. She never listened to me, though. She needn't have worried though, because she was only able to contact Nearly Headless Nick, and everyone could see him. Oh well, she'd get better (I hoped. I wanted give Adolf Hitler the finger).

Kherington started out seeing little fortunes like what I would eat waffles for breakfast the next day. I made a mental note to myself not to eat them. I had a theory that she would see more important stuff as she got better at it, and maybe one day she'll predict the questions on an exam, and give them to us. I could see it now.

I was walking to Potions, knowing that since everyone had their lessons, we would still all be in Potions. I didn't really pay any attention to who was next to me until I heard a very sexy "hello" from Tristan Hart.


	8. One of Those Stories

_Author's Note: _A million thank-yous to my friend, Kayla, for helping me come up with some characters and the plot! This story wouldn't exist without her!

* * *

_Chapter 8_

_Nicole_

"Hey," I said to Tristan and we began walking together.

"I haven't seen you since you got locked out of Gryffindor Tower," he said. Maybe he hadn't seen _me_, but I sure saw _him_.

"Yeah," I said. "Sorry about that."

"It's no problem. What's your next class?" he said.

"Potions."

"So is mine."

"I never noticed you in Potions before," I said.

"That's because I just got my schedule changed," he said, smiling down at me. "What a coincidence."

The way he said that made me think that the fact that we now had Potions together was definitely not a coincidence, but I wanted to seem oblivious and said, "Yeah, it's funny how things work out sometimes."

"How does Snape like you?" he asked me suddenly.

I immediately thought of Winnie, "what do you mean?"

"Well, I guess Snape likes me better than some people. I had him originally right after lunch. How does he like you?" Tristan said.

"He hates my ass," I said.

"You seem nice enough," he told me. I blushed.

"Yeah, well, I'm a total smart-ass in his class," I said.

"That I can see," he said, laughing when I made a face.

We were at Potions now, and I asked him before going in, "do you have a partner?"

"Yeah," he said. "My friend, Aiden, said he would be my partner."

I wondered if it was the same Aiden that was now dating Ravyn.

"Okay," I said, turning toward my desk where Tamora was watching us curiously. "Oh, do you want to sit with my sisters and me at dinner? You don't have to, but…"

"Sure," he said, cutting me off.

"Wont your friends be mad or something?" I asked.

"Once I explain that I'm having dinner with a pretty girl, I'm sure they'll make an exception."

I blushed again.

"I'll see you at dinner, then," he said before walking toward a table where his partner (yep, Ravyn's boyfriend) sat.

I went toward Tamora, who had her eyebrows raised in suspicion.

"Don't look at me like that," I said, sitting down. "Your face will freeze that way."

"Who was _that_?" she asked.

"That was Tristan," I said.

"Oh, the guy who opened the painting for you?" she asked.

"Yes," I was still a little embarrassed about that.

"He's not bad looking," she said, glancing at him.

"Back off, he's mine," I said.

"No worries, I have my own man to go after," she said.

"Since when?" I asked.

"Since I heard him singing, and we started talking," she said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Good for you," I said.

As if on cue, Snape walked in from his office (cave) and proceeded to lecture us about Australian poison frog legs in potions. Winnie demonstrated by making potions in front of the class, and I could've sworn I saw Snape check out her ass about five times. I pointed it out to Tamora, and each time he did it, we both giggled. Snape never noticed.

He would also ask Winnie to show us certain techniques when some of the moving ingredients easier to handle. Every time he'd say, "Miss Solis, would you please demonstrate?" and every time, it'd be followed by a funny-as-hell mocking whisper to Tamora by me (mostly stuff like "Miss Solis, would you please demonstrate how to properly remove one's shirt before having sex?").

The lecture basically went on the whole class, and afterwards, I met all of my sisters outside.

"Can we have a family meeting in my room?" I asked.

"Why, what's up?" Wolfgang asked.

"I just think we need to talk about some stuff," I said, not wanting to give away too much too soon.

No one argued with me, and they followed me up to Gryffindor tower. Of course, the bitch in the painting asked me if I forgot the password again.

"No," I said, irritated. "_Kestrel_."

The painting swung open.

"Isn't that a type of tree?" Rosalyn asked.

"Yep. I think whoever makes these up is losing their touch," I said.

"That would be me," said the painting.

"My point exactly," I said before going inside with everyone else.

When we walked up to my room, I noticed that Angie and Éponine were back already. They seemed surprised to see all of us.

"Family meeting?" Angie asked.

"Yep," some of us said.

"I'll be out of your hair in a minute," Angie said, putting on her red crescent necklace. "I have to go to some kind of meeting with my parents. They have something important to yell at me about or some shit like that."

"Shame," Victoria said as she went over to sit on her bed. Everyone else took seats on both beds and the floor.

After one quick toss of her hair, Angie walked out the door with a "bye guys!" Éponine followed her out.

"Where are you going?" I asked her.

"I have to help Professor Sprout with some plants," Éponine said. "Bye." She shut the door behind her.

"So," I said. "We all had our lessons today." It wasn't a question.

Everyone nodded.

"I'm sure you guys wanna tell all about them," I said.

"Yeah," Wolfgang said. "Kind of."

"Well, you don't have to tell me," I said.

"What are you getting at?" Tamora asked.

I told them about my part of the lesson and how I looked in on everyone else's. No one seemed upset, and they all listened intently (for once).

"So what you're saying is," Tamora said after I finished my story. "You _mind raped_ us?"

I began laughing, "yeah, I guess you could call it that."

"I feel so violated," she said.

"Hey, I didn't do it alone," I said. "Rosalyn did it with me too once."

"That's what she said," Ravyn said after laughing.

The more perverted people (Rosalyn and me) laughed uncontrollably while everyone else shook their heads in disgust.

"You mind raped me?" Tamora asked Rosalyn.

"No, we have the same lesson, stupid," Rosalyn said in a "duh" tone.

"Oh yeah," Tamora remembered. "So, who'd you mind rape?"

"Ravyn," Rosalyn answered.

"Now I feel violated," Ravyn said.

"It was the coolest thing I ever saw," Rosalyn beamed.

"That's what she said," I laughed. The laughing continued.

"Seriously, you controlling Darkness like that was cool," Rosalyn said after giggling.

"I guess," Ravyn said. "I wasn't exactly looking at myself."

"I learned to fly," Victoria said. "What did everyone else do?"

"I revived a dead plant," Suzanne said.

"I made water go into a bucket," Tamora said.

"I froze the water in the bucket," Rosalyn said.

"I made Darkness move," Ravyn said.

"I saw what Nicole was having for breakfast tomorrow," Kherington said.

"I'm so not eating waffles tomorrow," I said. "And I saw into all your minds." That received a bunch of "I know"s

"I made blue fire," Wolfgang said.

"I talked to Nearly Headless Nick," Emilina said.

"Everyone can do that," Kherington said.

"I know, but I still thought it was cool," Emilina said.

"On a side not," I said. "I've been hearing about all these guys lately."

Some people giggled.

"And I got to thinking after about the third person told me about a guy she liked," I said. "Who here has a guy they like?"

Everyone (including me) but Emilina raised their hands, some timidly, some not.

"Somehow, I knew she wouldn't raise her hand," Wolfgang said.

"Hey," Emilina said loudly. "I can here you."

"It was purely sarcastic, Emilina," Wolfgang said.

Emilina shrugged.

"Why not?" I asked Emilina.

"I don't know," she said. "No one here really catches my eye."

"That's okay," Victoria said. "A lot of people don't get married until their 40's. Some people don't ever get boyfriends."

"What?" Emilina shrieked. "I'm gonna be an old _spinster_!" she buried her face in her hands.

"Victoria!" Rosalyn and I said in unison.

"Sorry, I thought it would help," she said. She never could shut her big mouth.

Tamora and Suzanne (who were sitting next to Emilina on the floor) put their hands on her shoulders to comfort her.

"Seriously, you'll find someone," Rosalyn said to Emilina, who smiled at the attempt that actually helped.

"Okay, now that we all know that detail," I said. "Spill."

"What do you mean _spill_?" Tamora asked. "There's nothing to _spill_."

"Give us the details," I said.

"I'll go," Ravyn said.

"Gimme a break," Rosalyn said. "You're dating a guy, for God's sake."

"You are?" everyone but me and the Slytherins asked.

"Uh huh," Ravyn said, grinning.

"When did that happen?" Suzanne asked.

"Last night," she said.

"What'd you do, make out with the guy?" Rosalyn asked.

"Yeah, pretty much," Ravyn said.

"That's just great," Suzanne said sarcastically. "Who is it anyway?"

"Aiden Calvert," Ravyn said.

"Oh, that dude," Suzanne said.

"Who's that?" Victoria and Emilina asked.

"You'll know eventually," I said.

"But I don't wanna wait," Emilina said.

"You're gonna have to," I said. "I'm bad at descriptions."

Emilina frowned.

I rolled my eyes, "I already know who Rosalyn likes."

"Who?" Kherington asked.

"I don't really want to say," Rosalyn said.

"Oh, just tell them," I said. "They're just gonna guilt trip you into telling them later."

"His name is L," Rosalyn said in defeat. "L Silverman."

"The foreign exchange nerd?" Emilina asked.

"It's only foreign exchange if he's from out of the country," Suzanne said. "He's from London."

"I didn't know where he's from," Emilina said defensively.

"Who do you like, Tamora?" I asked.

"You already know who I like," she said.

"You didn't tell me his name," I said.

"His name is Erik Seaton," Tamora said.

"Who has the last name _Seaton_?" Rosalyn asked.

"Him apparently," Tamora said.

"I like this guy named Luke Everett," Suzanne volunteered. "He let me borrow that Poe book."

"Wow, Suzanne," I said. "You're usually not one to be upfront about guys."

"I know, but I figured I would make an exception since we're all sharing and stuff."

"If Suzanne can do it, so can I," Victoria said. "I like Caleb West." She said it like it was painful to admit.

"What's wrong with him?" Suzanne asked.

"Nothing," she said. "Absolutely nothing."

"Was it me," Rosalyn said, "or did that statement have perverted connotation?"

"Yes," I said. "I believe it did."

"Oh God," Victoria said.

"Who do you like, Nicole?" Emilina asked.

"You don't know?" I asked her. "I thought everyone did."

"I don't," Kherington and Emilina said in unison.

"His name is Tristan Hart," I said.

"That's a sexy name," Kherington said.

"Back off, he's _mine_," I said, grinning. "Nathan Cross, him you can have."

"Uh…" Kherington searched for words.

"Hey, I may not be in Ravenclaw," I said. "But I'm not an idiot. I see the way you look at him."

Kherington blushed.

"Wait a minute!" Emilina squealed. "Wolfgang raised her hand when Nicole asked if we liked anyone."

"Good observation," I said sarcastically, earning a glare from Emilina and laughs from everyone else. "What's your point?"

"My point is that she hasn't even offered to tell us who it is," Emilina beamed. "So…who is it?" She stared down Wolfgang like a hawk. I couldn't remember a time where I'd seen Wolfgang scared (scratch that, terrified). It almost made me scared for her.

Wolfgang looked to Ravyn for help, but she along with everyone else but me had joined the stare-down.

Wolfgang looked to me, and for once, I felt good that I was able to help her (she wasn't exactly the 'ask for help' type). I nodded reassuringly at her, telling her that she could tell, and no one would judge her. I only hoped I was right.

"His name is…" Wolfgang started. "Draco Malfoy."

All was silent.

A couple people's mouths dropped while others smiled. Poor Wolfgang didn't know what to make of all the different faces. Come to think of it, neither did I.

After what seemed like an eternity of silence, Emilina and Kherington broke it by breaking out in applause. Everyone but Wolfgang thought it was funny and joined in.

"What's with the clapping?" Wolfgang asked.

"You've begun your descent into girlhood," Emilina said.

Wolfgang, Tamora, Ravyn, and I all rolled our eyes.

"So I like a guy," Wolfgang said. "Big deal."

"It's a _huge_ deal," Kherington said.

"I don't see why."

"Because it's _you_, Wolfgang," Emilina said.

"So?" Wolfgang said. "Everyone likes guys at some point."

"Yeah, but you don't really fall under the _everyone _category."

"Okay, but I still don't think it's a big deal," Wolfgang said in a small voice.

"Whatever," Rosalyn said. "Now that we all know each other's business…what's the point?" She was looking right at me.

"Well, I figured that we might as well _talk _to them," I explained. "I mean, we'll never date them otherwise."

"I understand, Nicole, but unless you haven't noticed, some of us aren't exactly _talkative_," Tamora said.

"Yeah, but we could all make an effort to try," I said. "This is our fifth year at Hogwarts, guys, and none of us have ever dated anyone."

"That's because that's not exactly on my _To Do List_," Wolfgang said.

I glared at her.

"Don't you guys wanna date?" I asked.

My sisters though about it for a long time before they all (some grumbling) nodded.

"We promise to try, Nicole," Rosalyn said.

"Don't just promise to me. Promise that to yourselves as well," I concluded.

Again, they all nodded.

Everyone but Suzanne, Victoria, and I got up to leave before I remembered something.

"One more thing," I said.

They all turned and looked at me.

"I have something else to tell you."

They all sat back down, and I told them all about my dream about our moms.

Tamora/_Cassandra_

What Nicole told me about her dream scared me, but I never expected to have one of my own.

_We all sat in a circle in Cybelle's room in the manor. She was showing all the signs of having a vision soon._

I saw Cybelle; an Asian woman that was definitely Kherington's mother. Beads of sweat rolled down her pale face, her breath was ragged.

_I was beside her with a washcloth, trying to make her feel better in the only way I could. There wasn't much we could do about the symptoms of the visions._

Cassandra, my mother, looked like Wolfgang. I couldn't deny that. But she did have my blue-green eyes.

_Elizabeth was next to me on my other side, looking at Cybelle, and talking to me._

"_It's okay, Love," Elizabeth said to me. "The pain is subsiding quickly."_

_We all knew of Cybelle's pain, I especially. She and I were extremely close, and it always made me worry more than the others._

I could see the worry on Cassandra's face. Cybelle looked to her for comfort, and she always gave it.

_For a long while, the pain continued. Or at least it seemed like a long time to me. I wished I could erase that horrible feeling Cybelle must've been going through._

Elizabeth always comforted my mom.

_Soon Cybelle's eyes rolled into the back of her head, her eyes closing. She made no movement but her chest. She was having her vision, and all we could do was watch. Engracia and Helena stayed clam for the entire time. Usually, they were nervous wrecks whenever this happened. I was happy to see it._

_Elizabeth placed a hand on Cybelle's forehead then jerked it away._

"_Her forehead feels like it's on fire," she said._

"_Let me help," Isolde offered._

Rosalyn's mom, Isolde, put her own hand on Cybelle's forehead.

"_Are you sure that's a good idea?" Elizabeth asked her._

"_I'll be careful, I promise," Isolde told her reassuringly._

"_Won't it mess the vision up?" Helena asked._

"_Not if I'm very careful," Isolde replied. "As I said I would be."_

_Elizabeth nodded, giving her the go-ahead to do it. Cybelle's face now looked like a tomato._

Yes, it did.

_We could all see the blue tint in Isolde's fingers as she cooled the feverish temperature from Cybelle. I only hoped it would work like she said it would._

_After a few moments, she released her hand, and said "It's over."_

Cybelle shot up like a freaking rocket (no, I don't like to say the word 'fuck') and looked around frantically like someone might do after they woke from a nightmare.

"_Cybelle," Elizabeth said, reaching out and gripping her arm. "What did you see?"_

"_There was a…huge battle," Cybelle began. "Between us and Voldemort."_

I was glad someone besides us said his name.

"_What happens?" Liliah asked, who had barely spoken all night._

_Cybelle looked at every single one of us and sealed our fate, "we die."_

_Tamora_

I shot up in bed like Cybelle had done so vividly in my head moments ago. I had a dream like Nicole, and our moms looked exactly how she'd described them. That couldn't be coincidence. It just couldn't.

The next day before classes, I asked Nicole if she could get everyone together.

"Why?" she asked, eyeing me curiously.

"It's important, Nicole. Please."

"Fine," she shrugged, before going off to the Great Hall to get the others.

"Oh, and by the way," she called to me before she walked in. "You kinda look like shit."

I already knew that. I couldn't sleep after that dream. I just tossed and turned all night, listening to Margaret snore. It was torture.

A few minutes later, Nicole emerged out of the great Hall with my sisters in tow. I'd give her credit; she was very efficient in her methods.

"So what's up?" she asked when they all reached me.

"Come on," I said, leading them around a hall corner, out of earshot from other people.

"I hope this is good," Rosalyn said. "I was having a very deep conversation with L."

"What was the subject?" Nicole asked.

"There was no subject, it was just a talk," Rosalyn explained.

"Yeah, a _deep _talk," Ravyn giggled.

"Guys, I have to say something," I talked over them.

I had their attention now, and Nicole was not happy that I'd taken charge. I hoped she'd forgive me with the info I had.

"I had a dream like Nicole's last night," I told them.

"What?" Nicole was shocked. She came and stood next to me so she was facing the others like I was. "Did the people look the same?"

"I think so. They looked exactly how you described them," I replied.

"What was it about?" Emilina asked.

"Cybelle had a vision about a great battle between our moms and Voldemort," it seemed a little weird to say his name in public like that. "And Cybelle said (and I quote) 'we die'."

"They all die in that battle?" Wolfgang looked sad. So did the rest of them.

"That's depressing," Ravyn mumbled.

"I agree," stated Emilina and Kherington.

"Was there anything else?" Nicole asked, being a big girl and not looking sad, though I could see the slightest bit of pain in her eyes.

"No," I concluded.

"Who's point-of-view was it in?" Rosalyn asked, also being a big girl.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"In Nicole's dream, Elizabeth was the main person. Who was it in yours?" Rosalyn explained.

"My mother, Cassandra." I answered. "The dreams can't be pure coincidence."

"I agree," Nicole said. "We must be getting them somehow."

"None of us have gotten dreams yet," Kherington said.

"Your right," Nicole said, looking at her for a split second, and then looking back at me, our twin eyes locking. "I know this isn't coincidence, but we can't prove it for sure until everyone has one."

"I second that," Emilina piped up.

"So what do we do?" I asked.

"We go about our lives and wait for the dreams to come. If you have one, tell us. And try not to forget what happens. That really pisses me off," Nicole said.

"Hey, that's my line," Ravyn whined.

Nicole stuck her tongue out at her.

"I think we need to get to class," Rosalyn said. "We've been out here a few minutes.

"Yes," Wolfgang said.

Everyone but Nicole and me headed into different directions. Suzanne stood back to wait for her, but she said, "I'll catch up with you."

Suzanne nodded and went to class.

"What is it?" I asked her.

"Have you ever noticed those stories where the main characters never make it to the sequel?" Nicole asked me.

"Yeah, why?"

"I don't know for sure, but I have a feeling that we're gonna be one of those stories," Nicole said before walking off and leaving me in the hall.


	9. Kissing Gravestones

_Chapter 9_

_Nicole_

A few days went by, and the entire school was abuzz about the Quidditch match that afternoon. Everyone liked Quidditch at Hogwarts, especially my sisters and I. You might say that we were the sport's biggest fans, most certainly would.

It was Saturday, so everyone was running around school like idiots, much to Filch's distaste (I did it too a couple of times just to piss him off).

I was hanging out with my Slytherin sisters (except Ravyn) in their room, making crappy homemade posters and Styrofoam foam fingers, and anything else that showed "spirit" as muggles called it.

"I can't believe we didn't think to make anything like this all the years we've been going here," I said, coloring a lumpy Styrofoam finger with a red sharpie.

"Face it, Nicole. We were lazy-asses all those years," Rosalyn said.

"Speaking of lazy-ass," I said, eyeing her. She was lying down on her bed, her arms behind her head, doing absolutely nothing to help out the twins (who laughed at my comment) and me.

"Has anyone had any mom dreams?" Tamora asked. We'd barely had time to talk to each other for the past few days. We were über exhausted.

Wolfgang and Rosalyn both shook their heads.

"No, but I did have one where Aiden ate Ravyn's face off from making out so much and then had the Christmas tree for dessert," I said. "I don't know what the point of that one was…"

"What kind of fucked-up dream is that?" Rosalyn asked in-between giggles.

"I don't know," I said. "It was better than the one where Tamora had ten kids with _Hagrid_."

Tamora shuddered, "that was scary."

Wolfgang pointed and laughed at her, earning a slap in the shoulder. They both went back to making _Go Slytherin!_ posters.

"Can't you guys make a _Go Gryffindor! _one too?" I asked.

"We will as soon as you make a Slytherin sign," Wolfgang said.

"Are you out of your fucking mind?" I asked her. "No way!"

"Then no can do," she said. I rolled my eyes.

"Where's Ravyn?" I asked.

"I don't know. Aiden's at practice, so she's not with him," Rosalyn said, thinking about it. "Maybe she's pigging out in the kitchen." Aiden was on the Slytherin Quidditch team, which was probably part of why she was so crazy about him.

"Has she learned how to cover herself in shadow yet?" I asked Rosalyn, who knew where I was going with this.

"I'm not sure. I'll ask her when I see her next."

"She's probably pulling a prank or something," said Wolfgang. "Though I doubt she'd go without me if it were true."

"You're gonna get caught one of these days," Tamora told her.

"When Tamora?" she asked, raising her eyebrows.

"I don't know… when you do," she said.

"Can't you just go into her mind and find out if you're so curious?" Tamora said.

"That I could," I said. I went into her mind, discovering that she was outside, inside a cave-like opening on the side of the castle. It was almost completely dark where she was, since the light of the sun didn't reach her (or should I say _them_).

She was making out with Aiden (what a surprise), who was skipping Guidditch practice for a few minutes to be with her.

"I wish we could stay like this forever," Ravyn said when they stopped kissing. He held her up against the stone wall, her arms wrapped around his neck, their foreheads touching.

"So do I," he said. "But I have to get back to practice."

"No," she pleaded. "Stay with me."

"If I do, I wont be able to play this afternoon," he told her.

"Okay," she said, fake frowning. "I'll be cheering for you."

He was half-way out of the opening when she said the last part. She was still leaning against the wall.

"I'll look for you," he smiled back at her before running back to practice.

She leaned her head against the stone and sighed, pulling up one sleeve of her old tea shirt that had fallen during their kiss.

I went back into my own mind, telling Wolfgang and Rosalyn "you were both wrong."

"Where was she?" Rosalyn asked.

"She _was _making out with Aiden outside," I said. "Then he had to go back to practice."

"She still outside?" Wolfgang asked.

"Yep."

"Those two can barely keep their hands off each other," Tamora said.

"Wrong, Tamora," I said. "Ravyn's fast, but she's not _that_ fast."

"I meant they can't say away from each other," she said. "I'm not perverted like you."

"I'm not the only one," I said in a whiny voice. "I knew what you meant, and you're right. They remind me of Romeo and Juliet only they don't die after two days."

"A little," Wolfgang said. "Their love isn't forbidden like Romeo and Juliet's."

"Whatever," I said. "Give them two weeks, maybe three, and they'll be completely head-over-heels in love."

"I think they already are," Rosalyn said.

That afternoon, I walked out to the Quidditch field on the Outskirts of school with Rosalyn and the twins. Students were swarming into the stands like ants. I was about to go in myself when I saw Ravyn and Aiden talking a few feet away.

"Nicole?" Rosalyn asked when I stopped walking to look at them.

"Go ahead in," I told her. "I'll see you afterward."

Rosalyn nodded, then ran ahead to catch up with Tamora and Wolfgang.

I walked over to Ravyn and Aiden, who were stealing a few kisses when I came up behind them and said "ready to get your ass beat, Aiden?"

"I don't think it's me that has to worry, Nicole. I believe it is you."

"We'll just see about that, won't we?" I said, smiling.

"Yes we will," he agreed.

"C'mon Ravyn," I took hold of her wrist. "We hafta go to the stands."

"Okay," she said, kissing Aiden one last time.

"Gag!" I said loudly to them.

They laughed and Ravyn walked with me to the stands.

"So how long did you two make-out anyway?" I asked.

"You mind raped me? Again?" she didn't seem mad, just surprised.

"Yeah, we thought you were pulling a prank, and I wanted to see if you really were." Okay, it was sort of a lie, but what she didn't know wouldn't hurt her.

"I don't know, about ten minutes," she said, answering my question.

"Hot," was my reply.

Up in one of the Gryffindor stands, Angie, Suzanne, and Victoria motioned for me and I sat next to them. It was in the front row, so the view was great.

"Where were you guys all day?" I asked them.

"Suzanne and I were in the library," Victoria said.

"Was Luke and Caleb there?" I asked.

"Possibly," Suzanne said, grinning.

"Good," I said. "What'd you do, Angie?"

"Oh, you know, stuff," she said. She was glowing.

"Oh my God," I said, smiling at her.

"What?" she asked, looking scared.

"You totally fucked a guy," I said quietly so no one would hear but us and Suzanne and Victoria. "You didn't know his very long, Angie."

"Don't be ridiculous," she said. Her Red Crescent necklace catching the light. "I've know him for over a year now."

"Who is he?" I asked. "And how come you never told me about him?"

"His name is Ryan, and you never asked."

"Ryan Clements?" I asked.

"Yeah," Angie said.

"He's hot."

"I know, and he's not bad in _that _department either."

"Bad mental images," Suzanne and Victoria whined.

The Quidditch match started, and it always ticked me off that the fate of the match was always in the hands of Harry Potter. Aw well, it would be entertaining anyway. I handed Suzanne and Victoria a sign that I'd made for them, and watched them be complete weirdos with it. It was funny to some extent, but I also wanted to tell people that I didn't know them. It was a strange balance.

After about a half hour, Gryffindor managed to accumulate over 100 points with Slytherin not far behind. I noticed Angie watching with binoculars.

"Can I see those?" I asked her. She handed them to me.

I looked through them, immediately spotting Snape, who wasn't really paying attention to the match at all. He was mostly looking at one place, so I followed his gaze to find that Winnie was situated there. Well, I'll be damned.

I elbowed Angie (who knew about the whole Snape/Winnie thing). "Hey, check out Snape," I told her, handing the binoculars back to her.

She did, and I saw her pan over to where Winnie was. As soon as she saw, she removed the binoculars from her eyes and began cracking up.

"If they don't get together soon, I'm going to lose it," she said.

"Me too," I said.

Suzanne and Victoria were still waving around the sign like there was no tomorrow.

At some point, Angie elbowed me with the binoculars in hand, saying "check out Tamora."

I looked to see her watching with Erik Seaton, who had his hand firmly around hers, whispering in her ear. Tamora was smiling and laughing, and I never saw her that comfortable with a guy before.

"Go Tamora," I said.

I looked about Tamora and Erik to see Rosalyn with L. Both of them had their hands in the shape of guns, and they were pointing them at each other. I could see that they were saying "bang, bang, bang!" I shook my head at their stupidity.

I noticed that Wolfgang was sitting off by herself, and I made a mental note to hug her later. She looked so sad, but somehow happy as she looked out to the field. Then I remembered why. Draco Malfoy was the Slytherin Seeker (the player who ends the match by catching the Golden Snitch).

I watched him closely with my binoculars, and Angie poked her head in so we had to share them. As Draco zoomed by where Wolfgang was sitting, I saw him _wink_ at her?

Angie and I looked at each other. "Did he just wink at her?" Angie asked.

"That's what I saw," I said.

"Holy shit!" she said. "That's amazing."

I looked at Wolfgang once more to see if she noticed his wink or not. She was blushing and covering her face with her hands. She noticed. I gave the binoculars back to Angie.

"Hey, Nicole." I turned to see Tristan sitting next to me on the opposite side of Winnie.

"Hi, how's it going?" I said.

"Is it okay if I sit with you?" he asked.

"Of course," I said.

Angie and I exchanged looks, and Suzanne and Victoria gave me a thumbs-up. For most of the match, Tristan and I discussed the match and yelled out whenever someone scored or messed up. Angie laughed whenever we did that.

At the end of the match, Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy were closing in on the Snitch. Most people stood up to watch what was going on. Tristan and I moved to the very front of the stand.

Both Seekers had their hands outstretched to catch the Snitch, and it went slightly to Harry's side to that he was able to catch it.

"Yes!" I screamed out, and before I knew what was going on entirely, Tristan had me in his arms, kissing me. It wasn't a sappy peck either. It was a full-on make-out session. I knew full well that we weren't supposed to kiss in school, but at that moment, I really didn't give a shit. Tristan and I even got a few hoots and hollers. After we stopped kissing, we wrapped our arms around each other in a tender embrace. Maybe we were happy that Gryffindor won, maybe it was because we finally kissed. Whatever the reason, being with Tristan at that moment just seemed so utterly right, it hurt.

After I walked out of the stand (holding hands with Tristan) onto the grass, all my sisters were there plus Aiden. I let go of Tristan's hand and told him I had to talk to my sisters. He said goodbye and kissed my cheek before going back to the school.

"Well, at least you got your ass kicked gracefully," I said to Aiden.

"Yeah, well, next time I'll get you guys," he said, referring to the Gryffindor team.

"Oh, I doubt that," I called as he was walking away.

"Nicole," Rosalyn said as we all walked to Hogwarts together.

"Yes," I said.

"We all saw you with your tongue down Tristan Hart's throat that the end of the match," she said. The others nodded.

"Okay, he had his tongue down my throat too," I said.

"You were getting pretty passionate there," Tamora said.

"I was waiting for the clothes to start flying," Ravyn said.

"So sorry to disappoint," I told her.

"You should be. That would be the only porn I'd get to see until I got home," Rosalyn said.

"For the last time, _Cold Mountain_ is not porn," I said.

"I know that," she said. "Besides, maybe with luck I'll be making my own porn soon."

"It's the American Dream," I said, laughing.

"We don't live in America, Nicole," Wolfgang said.

"I know that, smart-ass," I said to her.

"Shame," Victoria said.

"You're annoying," I told her.

"So are you," she said.

"Yeah, what do you want me to do about it?" I said.

"Go die."

Everyone started laughing.

I glared at all of them.

"So anyway, what was the kiss like?" Rosalyn asked me.

"Oh God," everyone but Ravyn and I said.

"Yeah, give us the dirty details," Ravyn said.

"No, really don't," Emilina said.

"It was amazing," I said.

"What did he taste like?" Rosalyn asked.

"Spear mint," I said. "My fave."

"That's boring as hell," Ravyn said.

"Shame," Victoria said.

"Why, what does Aiden taste like?" I asked, choosing to ignore Tamora.

"Chocolate most of the time," she answered.

"Oh my God, that sounds so good right now," Rosalyn whined.

"You said it," I said.

"Guys," Ravyn said. "Aiden's _my boyfriend_."

"We don't want him," I said. "We want a chocolate flavored kiss."

"Well, go by some _Hershey's Kisses_ then," Tamora said.

"It's not the same," Rosalyn said.

"You also won't get mono," Tamora concluded.

"Shut up, Tamora," I said. She merely grinned at me.

_Ravyn_

That night while I was asleep, I felt a cool hand on my shoulder. I could've handled that a number of ways, but I chose to go the ninja route.

The arm that the person wasn't touching flew out and clasped around their neck. I didn't know how I knew where it was. I stared at them into the darkness, though I couldn't see clearly who it was yet.

"Ravyn, it's me," Aiden whispered in a raspy voice.

"Oh, sorry," I took my hand away from his neck. "What are you doing here?"

"I want to show you something," he said, looking around to make sure no one woke up.

"You don't have to worry about anyone but Rosalyn. The girl has mega-hearing powers or something," I said.

"We'll be quiet then," he said, taking my hand and almost dragging me out of bed.

"Where are we going?" I whispered.

"It's a surprise," he said.

We went out of my room and down a hall slowly.

"Why are we going so slowly?" I asked.

"I don't want us to get caught," he said.

"I can fix that," I said.

"What do you…" he was cut off by me reaching my hand out to motion the shadows of the dungeon to us. They wrapped around us both like an invisibility cloak, and we could see clearly out of it.

"How'd you do that?" he asked.

"My sisters and I have special powers. Mine has to do with Darkness, so I'm able to do this."  
"Well, it's a hell of a lot cooler than an invisibility cloak, I can't tell you that," he said. I knew he wouldn't freak. After all, he was a wizard too; a normal one, but a wizard nonetheless.

We walked with the shadows through Hogwarts towards the lawn in the middle of the school, and out through the opening, leading to the Quidditch field.

Once we were there, I let go of the shadows and asked him "why are we here?"

"Because of this." Leaning against the side of one of the stands was a _Nimbus 2000_.

"Oh my God," I said, eyeing it. I'd always wanted one, but I'd just never gotten around to it. The fact that Ruth didn't trust newer brooms didn't help.

"This is my broom," Aiden said, picking it up.

"It's beautiful," I said, now wishing I hadn't said anything so cheesy.

"It's no comparison to you," he said.

I smiled like an idiot.

He let go of the broom, and suddenly, it was floating in mid-air just below our waists.

Aiden hopped on, and the broom didn't take off like mine (I hated the damn thing) would have.

He outstretched his hand to me, "do you want to go for a ride?"

"Won't we get caught?" I asked. I wanted to ask if my black silk nightgown would fly up, but I didn't want to give him ideas.

"Do you trust me?"

I paused for dramatic effect, "yes."

He tilted back so I could get on in front of him. It felt different being on a _Nimbus 2000_, almost like it was softer, freer.

I held on to the broom, and Aiden put his arms in front of mine, so it was like he was caging me in. I liked it.

"You ready?" he asked.

"As I'll ever be," I answered.

"Alright, then," he said, sending the broom and us into the sky like a rocket. I gasped with the speed we went. My broom never went half this fast. We flew well over the Quidditch field, over the trees, swooping down over the lake, gliding barely above it.

"I wish I could touch it," I said, referring to the water.

"If you do, something might drag you under and then I'll have to go after you myself," Aiden said into my ear.

We flew back up, over the trees of the Forbidden Forest, being careful not to graze the tops of the trees. We might alert something in there.

"I don't think I've ever flown like this," I said. "It makes me want to stretch my arms out like in Titanic."

"You can," he said. "I've got you, you won't fall."

I let go of the broom uneasily, then eased my arms through Aiden's. Once they were out of his hold, I stretched them out to the side, feeling the full force of the wind. I was sure that I was grinning stupidly, but at the moment, all I saw was the moon, and I felt was the wind. I looked to the side where Aiden was, looking at me. With my free hand on that side, I grabbed the back of his head and brought his face to me in a kiss. We were only able to stay like that for a few seconds since Aiden had to navigate where we were going, but he compromised by kissing my neck over and over.

We were circling around the school, going over the lake and the Forbidden Forest. We even went through the Quidditch Field a few times.

All that time, Aiden was kissing my neck. Soon, I couldn't take it anymore. I needed to kiss him _now_.

"Land," I said after we went around the Quidditch Field one last time. He landed where we had taken off, not bumpy at all.

I hopped off the broom, Aiden asking "do you have to vomit or something?"

"Not even close," I said before grabbing his face and kissing him passionately.

Aiden let go of the broom, and it fell to the ground with a gentle _thud_. He reached his arms around my back, bringing me closer to him, and ultimately deepening the kiss. My head began to swim, so I had to stop. We were both breathing heavily, our faces still inches apart.

"I better get you back," Aiden said.

"Was this a date?" I asked as we walked back to Hogwarts hand-in-hand.

"Maybe," he said, slyly.

"I wish the night didn't have to end," I said.

"Neither do I," he said. "I love being with you."

"I love being with you too," I said.

"I've only ever ridden on my broomstick like that with one other person," Aiden said.

"What was her name?" I asked, a little ticked.

"_His _name was Sam," Aiden said. "He was my brother."

"Why doesn't he go here?" I remembered how he told me he had no siblings that went to Hogwarts.

"He never got the chance," Aiden said softly.

"Oh my God," I said, facing him. "You don't have to tell me anymore if you don't want to."

"No, I want you to know," he said. I saw a tear roll down his cheek.

"I was driving one night," Aiden started. "Sam was with me, and it was raining so the roads were real slippery. We lived in a really small village back then, so it wasn't like we could teleport places. Well anyway, it was raining so hard that I could barely see where I was going, and I pulled over to the side of the road so that I wouldn't hit anyone. I didn't know until later that another car going the opposite direction swerved off the road too, hitting my car." He began crying softly.

"I lived, but Sam didn't. If I had just kept going and not pulled over, maybe he would've lived. It's my fault he's dead, Ravyn."

"No," I said, whipping away his tears. "It is not your fault that he died. Or that the other car swerved off the road. You had no way of knowing that would happen. It's not your fault, do you hear me? It isn't."

I took him by the hand and we sat down on the grass against the stone of Hogwarts. I wrapped my arms around him and just let him cry. I rested my head on his shoulder, letting him get all his anger and sorrow out. I'd never seen a guy act so vulnerable with me before. It made me feel important that he would share that with me, and I promised that I would do everything in my power to make him feel better.

"In my heart, I know you're right about that," he said to me once he'd calmed down. "But my head still says it's my fault."

"Then listen to your heart. Your head just tells you what you want to hear, your heart tells you the truth," I said.

We hugged for a little longer before going back to my room covered in shadow. We stopped at the door, and I released them, sending the shadows on their way.

"Thank you, Ravyn," he said, kissing me lightly on the lips.

"Anytime," I said. "And thank you for taking me on your broom."

"Anytime," he said, smiling.

After I went in my room and crawled back into bed, I couldn't help but smile.


	10. The City's Alive Tonight

_Chapter 10_

_Nicole_

Late September found me before I found it. Classes were Hell, but other things made time go by. The day after the Quidditch match, Ravyn began wearing Zelda's choker. She hadn't worn it before, so it was a little strange to me. I later found out that Aiden had given her a hickey.

Tristan came to me and asked me to be his girlfriend. Of course, I accepted, but having a boyfriend was entirely new to me, especially when our 'dates' consisted of sitting next to each other at meals and hanging out on weekends just listening to music. Ravyn and Aiden were there sometimes, and she and I felt good that were the first to actually get boyfriends.

I never looked into my sisters' minds, but I did look for them whenever I could to see if they were talking to their own love-interests. I had to say that Rosalyn and L were painful to watch. No matter how close they got to it, they never actually kissed. It was torture. Everyone else had a pretty good relationship going (no kissing though) with their guys, for which I was thankful. I didn't want to feel guilty for having a boyfriend when they didn't. Winnie and Snape got to the point where they would steal glances at one another inconspicuously (I noticed every time), and Winnie would refer to his as _Severus_ when it was just her and us.

Late September for my sisters and I was legendary (along with other times of year and most holidays). Mine and Emilina's birthdays were both in September, so we shared birthday sometime in late in the month, and the parties were over the top (to say the least).

Angie was planning the party this year, and she refused to tell me anything about what she had planned. I made one thing perfectly clear, though: no Happy Birthday Song. I really hated it when it was sung to me, and though Emilina never said anything, I knew she didn't like it either. Tamora was extremely worried about what Angie might have up her sleeve, but I always said it was okay because we could kick Angie's ass later. That seemed to satisfy her.

The day of the supposed party in Potions, it was particularly quiet. Snape was going on and on about some herb you find in (and I quote) "the Peruvian jungles of Peru."

"Are you going to tell him, or should I?" I whispered to Tamora, who giggled.

"Look at the way she's looking at him," Tamora said, referring to Winnie and Snape. "It's almost sad because they're just so perfect, and they haven't gotten together yet."

"I have a plan for that," I said.

"Tell, tell," Tamora said slyly.

"Patience, Tamora. Soon, all will be revealed."

"Oh don't give me that deep-meaning-slash-magic-mirror-on-the-wall bullshit," Tamora said.

I widened my eyes at her, "I've never actually heard you say _bullshit_ before."

"There's a first time for everything."

Snape gave us instructions on some potion that Rosalyn and I were unable to make a few days prior, and Tamora and I weren't much better at it.

Snape walked around the room, assessing our work (as an excuse to look at Winnie). As he was walking by her table, I said to Tamora, "Watch this."

I took out my wand and used the Trip Jinx on him, sending him falling to the ground, but it had the intended effect. As he fell, his hand lightly grazed one of Winnie's boobs in a way that was impossible not to see.

I quickly put away my wand before he saw me, and it was Winnie who helped him up, while everyone else held back laughter.

"That was a Trip Jinx," Snape said, fixing his hair. Yeah, we all knew that, hence what happened. "When I found out who did that, there will be severe consequences, perhaps even expulsion."

Thus ended Potions Class. It was cloudy outside, but it felt warmer then it had been lately, so my sisters and I sat in the yard in the middle of Hogwarts. Winnie came with us.

"Who used the Trip Jinx?" Winnie asked. She knew it had to be one of us.

"You're welcome," I said.

"What do you mean 'you're welcome'?" Winnie asked.

"I did it to help you," I said.

"How exactly did that help?"

"Now you know what it feels like to have him touch your boob," I said matter-of-factly.

"Gross," most of my sisters said.

"Though I applaud you efforts, Nicole," Wolfgang said. "There was one flaw."

"What was that, _Oh Wise Prankster_?" I asked her.

"The touching wasn't intentional."

"Damn it, you're right," I said, resting my face in my palm.

"Shame," Victoria said.

"Oh, go fuck Caleb," I told her.

She gasped, "Double shame, Nicole. Shame."

"Busted!" Ravyn and Rosalyn sang.

"What?" Victoria said.

"You totally did it with him," Ravyn said.

"I did not; you're just saying that to upset me."

"Is it working?" Rosalyn asked.

"Yes."

"Then our work here is done."

"Sometimes, I wish you guys would just _croak_," Victoria said, crossing her arms.

Most of my sisters (me included) said, "_Ooh…_"

"What time are you guys going to be leaving for the party?" Winnie asked, changing the subject.

"I take it you got invited?"

"Yeah."

"Sweet. Okay, the party starts at eight, so probably 6:30," I said.

"How are you going to get there?" Winnie asked.

"I have no freaking clue," I said. "Angie said she'd take care of it. We don't even know where it is."

"I was sworn to secrecy about where it is, so I can't help you there."

"Sworn to secrecy?" Rosalyn asked, raising an eyebrow.

"It's written on the invitations not to tell you anything about the party," Winnie explained.

"That sounds like some shit Angie would do," I said, eyeing Victoria. She didn't say anything, but I felt her distaste.

"Shouldn't everyone but Emilina and Nicole know about the party?" Wolfgang asked. "After all, it's not ours."

"I asked her that myself, and she doesn't trust you not to tell…or get bribed." Winnie glared at Ravyn and Kherington as she said the last part.

"She doesn't trust me?" Wolfgang said. "_Me_?"

"Nope," Winnie said.

"Smart girl," Wolfgang said.

Angie left for the party with Éponine long before we did. We all got one good look at what they were wearing and went straight for my trunk. Victoria and Suzanne didn't own one item of clothing that could pass as _sexy_. While they chose more conservative clothing like jeans and fitted t-shirts, I chose a shiny silver cocktail dress that clung to my body perfectly. The fact that it hid the black lingerie I was wearing underneath was an added bonus. Silver heels finished my look. My sisters had to fend for themselves by way of heels. They're feet weren't even close to my size 9's.

I curled my hair to that it had a little curve at the ends, and put on lipstick and mascara. I didn't want to put on anything else; I didn't know what I'd be doing later. Since Suzanne and Victoria

Were pretty much helpless when it came to hair and make-up, I did theirs too. Suzanne wanted it straighted; she didn't want to look too different. Victoria wanted big, bold curls, which I wasn't too happy about because I had to get curlers out. It turned out good in the end. For them (since I knew they wouldn't do anything too bad), I made their make-up flawless. In my opinion, they could stop a man in his tracks with a single glance. I really hoped they did, or at least caught the attention of Luke and Caleb (who I requested as well as everyone else's guys. That was the only thing Angie let me do. Emilina's kind of useless when it comes to planning stuff).

When Suzanne and Victoria found some heels, we were all ready. We told our sisters that we'd come to get them. Before we left, we found a note on the door.

"Did you guys see this?" I asked. They shook their heads.

I read the note out loud to them.

_Not so fast, Nicole!_

_Gather your sisters and sneak out to the main doors of Hogwarts. A surprise awaits you there._

_XOXO Angie_

"How did she know I'd be the one to read it?" I wondered.

"Don't know," Suzanne said.

I shrugged, and we walked out of Gryffindor towards Ravenclaw. We'd get Kherington first. I noticed that the school was more empty than usual, and it was still early. Angie probably invited the whole school or something.

We'd never actually been to Ravenclaw more than once, so we were surprised that there was no password for it. The door said, "in order to enter, you must first answer my riddle."

"Riddle?" I asked.

"Bring it on," Suzanne said. "I'm good at these."

"Very well," the door said. "What stays where it is when it goes off?"

"That's easy," I said. "A gun."

The door said "correct" and swung open.

"How'd you know that?" Victoria asked.

"I'm not as innocent as you two," I said. They shrugged.

We knew where Kherington's room was, but we were surprised to see that she was alone.

"Where are your roommates?" I asked.

"At some lame chess match in the library," Kherington said. "I'm rooming with a bunch of nerds."

"You're a nerd too, you know," I said. "You made it into Ravenclaw."

"Yes, but I don't think that homework and chess are fun."

"You're nerd meter just went down," I said.

She smiled.

We got Emilina from Hufflepuff (Kherington knew the password), and went down the Slytherin to get the others. Ravyn's outfit was by far the coolest. She had on a black mini skirt with fishnets and high heeled boots; her shirt was a corset tope with black spider web long sleeved. Of course, she had on black make-up.

"Nice," I told her, smiling.

"You're very…shiny," Tamora said to me.

"Thanks," I said. "It's my party; I might as well stand out."

"And mine," Emilina piped up.

"Yes, of course," I said. How could I forget?

"You guys ready?" I asked them.

Some nodded, while others said "I guess."

We snuck out through the opening towards the Quidditch field, but we went around to the front of the castle.

"Are we gonna get caught?" Tamora asked.

"Not if you keep quiet," I whispered. She shut up.

Around the front of the school, we didn't notice anything at first.

"Is this someone's idea of a joke?" Rosalyn asked.

I was about to answer when I saw it. Tucked away beneath some trees was a huge white Honda Odyssey. I saw one on a commercial, but I'd never expect to see one here.

"Oh my God," I said.

"What is it?" Wolfgang asked.

"It's a car," Emilina said.

"Yes, I know it's a car, but what type is it, numskull? That's my question."

"Why didn't you just ask that then?" Emilina asked.

"It's a Honda Odyssey," I said quickly, avoiding a fight.

"I thought those were only available in America," Suzanne said.

"They must be available somewhere since it's here," I said.

"They could've shipped it," Emilina suggested.

"How could they possibly do that?" Kherington asked. "And who's _they_?"

"By plane, duh!" Emilina said matter-of-factly. "And they are the fairies."

Some of us looked at her like she'd lost her mind, while other slapped their foreheads.

"Okay, I don't know about you guys, but I seriously wanna check out that car," I said.

"Technically, it's a _van_," Victoria emphasized the last word.

"Who gives a shit?" I said, getting a "shame" afterward.

We rushed over to the car, peeking in the windows, loving the fact that it could fit all of us, but someone was gonna have to sit in someone else's lap.

"I'm not sitting in Suzanne's lap," Victoria said.

"Why?" I asked.

"I won't let her," Suzanne said. "Her butt is the size of a watermelon, and twice as heavy."

"Ha ha, Suzanne," Victoria said.

"I wonder if this thing is unlocked," I said, tugging on the driver's door. Sure enough, it was with the keys in the ignition. Inside, there was a note in the driver's seat with my name written on it.

"What's that?" Wolfgang asked.

"A note," I said before opening it and reading it out loud.

_Nicole,_

_I bet you were wondering how you'd be getting where your party is. The Odyssey is my birthday gift to you, and it's the only car I could find that would fit all of you (plus one). Ever heard of Club Vice? Well, you will tonight. I gave the address to Tamora, so you'll know how to get here. Anyway, enjoy you're present, and I'll see you all soon._

_XOXO Angie_

"Oh great, she gives you a car for you're birthday but not me?" Emilina whined.

"You're a year younger than me, Emilina," I said. "You're not old enough to drive."

"That's all fine and dandy, but how are you going to drive legally?" Tamora asked.

"With this," I said, pulling my driver's license out of my purse.

"How did you get that?" Rosalyn asked.

"Unlike you guys, I know how to sneak off on the weekends."

"Forget about the car, the party's at Club Vice!" Kherington squealed.

"Oh my God!" I said, now realizing what Angie's note meant.

"Club Vice?" Wolfgang asked.

"It's an awesome wizard-run nightclub in London," I said. "Its theme is the Seven Deadly Sins."

"It wants you to indulge in them," Kherington said.

"Right," I agreed.

"Oh, great," Wolfgang and Tamora said.

"Get in," I said, hopping in the driver's seat, Emilina claiming shot gun since it was her birthday too.

There was a little fighting about who would be the poor sap that would sit on someone's lap, so finally Kherington ended up sitting on Tamora's lap (who was right behind me).

"Wait," I said. "How long have you known the address, Tamora?"

"Angie told me today," she said.

"Okay, I know how to get into London, and tell me where to go from there."

"Fine by me," Tamora said. "And I just thought of something. Isn't it illegal if everyone in the car doesn't have a separate seat?"

"Yep," I said before starting the car and driving away from Hogwarts.

"I can't believe we got away without even Filch seeing us," Victoria said.

"He probably did see us and was blinded by our sexiness," I said, turning the radio to a station that had the best music.

"I bet," Victoria said.

"Has anyone been to Club Vice before?" Wolfgang asked.

"Nope, but I've seen it from the outside tons of times. It's pretty epic."

"It must be so _posh_ on the inside," Tamora mimicked an old lady.

"I do believe so," Suzanne said, also mimicking an old lady. "I have been in there myself and felt like a hot mama."

"Did you do anything that your dear husband, Henry, would disapprove of?" I asked. This was turning into an old-lady fest.

"I'm not sure, but I do believe I saw her giving a lap dance to some young fool," Rosalyn said.

"Oh no," Suzanne said. "What if Henry finds out?"

"Don't worry," Wolfgang said. "My miniature poodle, Humphrey, will take care of him."

"Is Humphrey pink?" Emilina asked, being a crappy old lady mimicker.

"No, he is black, the color of my soul."

We all started laughing.

"Aint that the truth," I muttered under my breath.

"What was that?" Wolfgang asked suspiciously.

"Nothing," I said quickly.

"Yeah, I thought so."

"Nicole, I can barely hear the music," Ravyn whined. "Turn it up!"

I turned the knob up a few notches. _California Gurls _byKaty Perry was playing.

"Can we listen to my music?" Ravyn said. "It's much better."

"Hell no!" I said. "We are not listening to your screamo-slash-I'm-a-depressed-moron shit."

"Why not?"

"Because it's _shit_," I said. I was doing a surprisingly good job of driving while talking to my sisters at the same time. Ruth would be proud.

"Shame," Victoria said referring to my cuss.

"Can you please not say that again for the rest of the night?" Emilina asked.

"Why should I?" Victoria asked.

"Because if you don't, I'll go all ape on your ass," I said. "Plus it's my birthday."

"Fine, but tomorrow, I'm gonna shame you for all the cursing you did tonight."

"Fair enough," I said.

"Besides, Nicole, your birthday was on the 12th. It's the 25th," Victoria pointed out.

"Mine was only two days ago," Emilina said.

"And it's not nice to point out others misfortunes," Tamora said.

"How is being born on September 12th a misfortune?" I asked.

"It's the day after 9-11," Tamora said.

"Oh yeah. I barely remember that day, but that was bad," I said. I was only seven when it happened.

"No one really remembers," Rosalyn said.

"I guess not."

We drove through the countryside of England, and watched the sun go down right as we entered London.

"What's the address?" I asked Tamora.

"68 North Cambridge," Tamora said.

"I know where that is from here," I said.

"Why didn't we just put the address into GPS?" Suzanne said.

I looked over at the GPS, showing us what road we were on.

I sighed, "Because I'm a fucking idiot, I guess."

As we got closer, we started getting more and more excited about the party. And to add to it, _I Gotta Feeling _by The Black Eyed Peas came on the radio, and we started singing along. It was surprising to me that everyone knew the song, even Wolfgang.

As the song went on, the city seemed to come alive with lights. It was like we'd entered a whole new world. Most of my sisters had never been to London at night, so they were gushing over how cool it looked; especially the trees in the patches of grass between the street and the shops and townhouses. Their leaves were falling off, so it was an awesome contrast.

Everyone was surprised we got there so quickly.

"Where the hell are we?" Ravyn asked, not even bothering to look out the window.

"We're at Club Vice," I said, parallel parking in front of it.

Club Vice was a set of glass double doors that were brightly lit from the inside. That was unlike any club I'd seen. Above the double doors were gothic/curvy white letters that spelled out _Club Vice_.

After looking up at the sign, we all hopped out of the Odyssey. As we walked to the double doors where a huge bouncer was standing, only Rosalyn and Suzanne walked next to me. The others walked right behind us; they must've been worried that we would get mugged or something.

We walked up to the bouncer, who asked, "IDs please."

I knew that voice, "Hagrid?"

He was wearing a dorky hat so I couldn't see his face. He removed it when he saw me.

"Oh, it's you. I've been waiting for you all night," he said.

"It's almost eight, Hagrid," I said. "That's when the party starts."

"Yes, but you are the last ones to get here."

"Everyone _really_ wanted to get away from school," I said.

"How did Angie rope you into this?" Rosalyn asked Hagrid.

"Oh, it wasn't too hard on her part, and honestly, I was happy to come out here. Give me a sense of what muggles do at night. So far, I've had to tell ten wizards and seven witches that the entire club was rented out to a private party. I'll tell you, were they steaming. I could see the smoke coming out of their ears at times, and I'm not talking about the magical kind, either."

"Are you really going to make us show you out IDs?" Suzanne asked.

"Of course not," Hagrid said. "After all, you all are on the VIP list, or at least that's what Angie said. Go right on in."

"Aren't you coming in too?" I asked.

"No, I'm to guard the door until everyone leaves."

"That should be a while. I don't think there is a closing time tonight," I said.

"Then it'll be a very long night, indeed," he said.

"I'm gonna make sure of that," I said before going inside with the others.

"I would watch those jokes around people like Hagrid," Tamora said. "It could get you in trouble."

"Who said anything about joking?" I said. Tamora rolled her eyes at me.

The first thing we saw when we entered Club Vice was a huge room decorated entirely in black and white. At the far end was one of the largest bars I've ever seen, and to either side of it, there was a black door. To the side of the two doors were glass staircases that wound up to a second floor, where a set of black double doors were. Scattered around the room were black and white tables and booths that seemed so fitting. Among these booths and tables were Hogwarts students (most I knew, but there were some that I didn't). To the far left wall, there was another set of double doors with the word _Gluttony_ above it. I could see that behinds those doors were every shade of pink imaginable with bowls of fruit and people eating. They sure got Gluttony right.

To the far right was another set of double doors identical to that of Gluttony on the word above it was _Sloth_. Inside were all shades of blue with a fountain and waterfalls. People were going in and out.

Angie was situated at the bar (that seemed so perfect situated between the doors and staircases) with a glass of Red Lotus in hand. We all went up to her, and she hugged me. She was wearing a bright red cocktail dress, and of course, her Red Crescent necklace.

"How do you like your party?" she asked me.

"So far, I love it, but I haven't seen the rest yet."

"Well, have a few drinks and then check the place out. Through those black doors on the side of the bar is the dance floor, and beyond that is the staircase to Lust." She explained this all to everyone.

"Then where do those staircases lead?" Ravyn asked, pointing to the ones on either side of us.

"Oh, those lead to the third floor, actually. The dance floor is circular, and up there is a balcony that wraps around it. Basically, you can look down at the dancing people from all angles. Plus, the four remaining deadly sins are up there," Angie explained.

"What are these two places?" Emilina asked, motioning to the right and left.

"Gluttony is a restaurant and Sloth is a spa. I think they did a good job with those two."

"I wanna check out Sloth," Emilina said, going through the spa's double doors with Victoria, Kherington, and Suzanne following. As they went through, someone came in from the dance floor, letting a wave of music sing through the bar.

"Dang, that's loud," Tamora said.

"No kidding," Wolfgang said, sitting at the bar. Tamora sat next to her.

"Are you guys gonna drink?" I asked, sitting down next to Angie. Rosalyn and Ravyn sat down too.

"There's nothing else we wanna do," Tamora said.

"And besides, we can view everything from right here," Wolfgang said.

"No you can't," I said.

Wolfgang pointed to behind the bar at the wall that wasn't hidden by bottles of booze. It was a window looking in on the dancing, but no one seemed to notice we were here.

"Is that a two-way mirror?" I asked.

"Yep," Angie said. "We can see in, but they can't see out."

"Clever," Rosalyn said.

Just then, the (sexy) bartender came to us and asked, "What can I get you ladies?"

"I hired him," Angie said. "He can make anything."

"Anything?" I asked.

Angie nodded.

"Okay," Ravyn said, deciding to order first. "I'll take a Black & Gold."

"I'll take a Chocolate Kiss," I said.

"So will I," Rosalyn said.

"It's not the real thing, but it's pretty dang close," I said.

"I know, right," Rosalyn said, laughing.

"A bottle of Merlot for me," Wolfgang said.

"One for me too," Tamora said.

"A _bottle_ of Merlot?" I asked. "Don't you think that's a bit much?"

"No," Tamora said. "We just don't want to keep asking him for more glasses."

"I see," Angie said, sipping her drink. "Make it happen, Sergio."

"How many of those have you had?" I asked.

"This is my second one," Angie said.

"What have you been doing for the past two hours?" I asked.

"I've been sitting here, waiting for you. Now, I can actually do stuff."

She hopped down from the barstool and took her drink. "If you need me, I'll be in Greed," she said before walking up one of the staircases.

"I'm interested to see what Lust is," Rosalyn said.

"Rumor has it that once you go through the doors, it's a long hallway with 14 rooms all decorated in red and purple," I said.

"Are they made for sex?" Rosalyn said.

"That's the rumor," I said.

"Wouldn't surprise me," Wolfgang said. "This place is run by magic, after all."

"Maybe the place is rigged with lust charms," Ravyn said.

"Do those even exist?" I asked.

"Anything's possible," Rosalyn said.

Sergio came back with our drinks then, and we all thanked him.

"Here's to almost the real thing," I said to Rosalyn before we clinked our glasses before sipping them.

"If a boy's kisses tasted like this, I'd never stop kissing him," Rosalyn said.

"What about food?" I asked.

Rosalyn rolled her eyes, "details."

I giggled.

"Angie said we could see the dance floor from the third floor, right?" Wolfgang said.

"Yeah," Ravyn said.

"Bye," she and Tamora said, grabbing their wine bottles and glasses.

"Where are you guys going?" Rosalyn asked.

"Why sit around here when we can get an aerial view," Tamora said.

"Precisely," Wolfgang said. "See you all later."

"Those two are so weird sometimes," I said.

"Yeah," Rosalyn said. "Where do you think L is?"

I looked at Gluttony's double doors, "I'll give you one guess."

"Gluttony," she said. L apparently loved to eat.

"I wanna check that out," Ravyn said, getting down from the stool, not forgetting her drink. Rosalyn picked hers up too.

"Have fun, you guys," I called as they walked away.

I was alone.


	11. Secrets Hide The Sinner

_Chapter 11_

_Nicole_

I sat on my stool for a while, just sipping Chocolate Kiss after Chocolate Kiss. It was like there was anything else to do. At least everyone around me practically ignored me so I wouldn't have to talk much in my buzzed state. Although, I had to admit, it was kind of lonely.

"Hey, beautiful," whispered the familiar voice of Tristan from behind me. "What are you doing here all by yourself?"

"Everyone else left me," I said. "Bastards."

"You're drunk," he said, sitting next to me.

"I missed you," I swooned.

"You're horny too," Tristan smiled.

"Maybe a little." It wasn't like I never _wanted _to have sex with Tristan, it just never happened. Don't get me wrong, I've often thought about it, but it never really got thrown around.

"Wanna dance?" he asked, smiling.

"Hell yeah," I said, taking his offered hand as he leads me behind one of the black doors into the dark dance floor, where the only light source was the multi-colored lights that shone every which way.

_Like a G6 _by _Far East Movement_ was blasting through the overly huge speakers on either side of the DJ booth, and at the far end of the dance floor was a set of double doors with bright pink, swirly lettering above it: Lust.

_Rosalyn_

"Ravyn, what the hell are you eating?" I asked as my strange sister stuffed her face.

"I don't even know anymore," she said, taking a huge bite of…whatever it was.

"How do you not know what you're eating?" I asked.

"It happens all the time. Especially with weird stuff like rattlesnake or raccon," L stated, taking a bite out of the biggest piece of chocolate cake I've ever seen. So far all we'd done in Gluttony was pig out, and while we were really enjoying it, I knew we'd live to regret it.

We _so _did not belong in Gluttony. The entire restaurant was decorated in ice-cream parlor pink and white, all the tabled had frilly tablecloths. The one thing that made us feel like we belonged was the fact that most of the stuff on the menu was junk food.

"Where are you putting all that food?" Ravyn asked Aiden as he practically shoveled food into his mouth.

"My stomach," Aiden answered matter-of-factly. Ravyn gave him her "no shit, Sherlock" face. I giggled slightly, and covered my mouth as soon as I did so.

"Did you just giggle?" L asked me.

"Kind of," I answered, embarrassed.

"I've never heard you giggle," he said.

"It happens sometimes when I'm hyper," I answered.

L nodded, "You should do it more often. I like your giggle."

I smiled.

"Ooh!" Aiden and Ravyn chimed.

"Shut the fuck up," I told them, but all they did was start laughing.

I glared at them; L put his hand on mine reassuringly.

"Why is it that you guys aren't dating?" Aiden asked.

"Yeah, you're practically screaming to get together," Ravyn said.

I shrugged. I wasn't about to admit it to her with Aiden around, but I was waiting for L to make the first move, and since he hadn't, I just kept telling myself to be patient. It was slightly irritating, though.

I took a sip of my chocolate milkshake, and said, "we've been here a while, we should probably go someplace else."

"Like where?" Ravyn asked. "Nicole's probably gone from the bar by now."

"We could chill with Tamora and Wolfgang," I said, getting up from the table. Ravyn nodded and got up with me. Aiden and L stood, and we left Gluttony and went up one of the spiral staircases and through the door at the top. Tamora and Wolfgang were easy to spot. The room was circular in shape, but the only part of it we could actually walk was the perimeter, for in the center of the room was a round hole that looked down on the dance floor, which explained why the room was so dark. I could see doors to the left, right, and far side of the room. They read Pride, Envy, and Greed.

Tamora and Wolfgang were seated at one of the scattered tables, clearly buzzed, if not drunk.

"Hey, twins," Ravyn said, sitting next to Wolfgang, while the rest of us filled in the other chairs.

"Hey," Tamora said, eyeing Aiden and L. She wasn't too comfortable with people she didn't know very well, particularly guys.

"What's up?" Wolfgang asked, no hint of drunkenness in her voice, though the bottle of Merlot was almost empty.

"Don't tell me you guys drank most of the bottle," I said.

"We didn't," Wolfgang said. "_I_ drank most of it."

"Then why aren't you trashed by now?" Ravyn asked.

"Please, you make it seem like I've never been drunk before. I've built up an immunity to it over the years. Tamora, on the other hand, has never been drunk."

"Shut up, Wolfgang," Tamora said. "I don't drink."

"Hey, lovely ladies," Angie said, coming up to us and smiling widely. "And who are these delightful young men?"

"Cut the act, Angie. They're _ours_," Ravyn said.

"Fine, fine," Angie said, pulling up a chair. "Are you enjoying the party? Nicole certainly is."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"see for yourself," Angie motioned toward the hole in the center of the room. I stood from the table and went over to it, peering over the railing. Surprisingly, I could see every inch of the dance floor, but everyone was a blur in the intense darkness. Even the lights didn't help.

"Ravyn," I called.

She came with the others.

"Can you see Nicole?" I figured she could see her, what with her power being darkness.

"I'll try, but I've never tried it before," she warned. Ravyn looked over the railing and gasped. "It's like I have night vision."

"Do you see her?" I asked, aware of Angie tapping her foot a few feet away.

"No…wait, yes I do. And oh man, I wish you could see this," Ravyn said, smiling.

"What?" I asked.

"She's practically having sex with Tristan."

"Eww!" Tamora said.

"You mean she's dirty dancing?" I asked.

"Grinding is an understatement," Ravyn said, eyes still transfixed on Nicole. "Where the hell did she learn to dance like that? She's a virgin."

"That doesn't mean she hasn't come close," Wolfgang said.

"I told you she was having fun," Angie grinned, sipping a glass of red wine.

"Okay, I think I've seen enough," I said, moving away from the hole, and back toward the table where the wine was. I needed a drink.

"Where's the wine?" I asked, noticing the bottle was gone.

"Here," Angie said, handing me a full glass of red wine.

"Thanks," I said, taking a huge gulp.

I walked over to L and Aiden, but I didn't hear Ravyn say to Angie "I saw that. You put something in her drink."

"It's a party," Angie said. "And Rozzy needs to lighten up. What she doesn't know won't kill her."

"I guess so," Ravyn said.

Angie smiled, and walked away gracefully.

_Tamora_

I sat at the table with my sisters and those guys who I didn't know very well. The only thing I wanted to do was leave, but I knew it was Nicole's birthday, and I wanted to be here. Besides, I couldn't leave without the others, even if I wanted to. I couldn't drive.

I yawned, not paying attention to the conversation around me. I did notice that Rosalyn was getting kind of tipsy, but I didn't say anything. I looked around the room for something interesting to look at, and I did. I found Erik. He was standing against the wall not too far from us, and tilted his head to the side, beckoning me. I stood from the table to go to him. Anything was better than this.

"Where are you going?" Wolfgang asked me.

"Don't worry about it," I told her.

She saw Erik and shrugged, focusing her attention to Rosalyn.

I hurried to Erik, "hey."

"Hey, wanna get out of here?" he asked, smiling.

"I would, but I can't leave without my sisters."

"Don't worry, we're not going far," he said, taking my hand, and leading me to an unmarked door. Behind it was a staircase, and as we climbed, I asked, "where are we going?"

"You'll see," he said.

At the top of the stairs was a door, and beyond that, was the room of Club Vice. It was windy that night, but the view of the city was truly beautiful.

"Wow," I said, looking all around at the lights and buildings.

"Pretty cool, huh?" he said.

"I'll say."

Erik walked over to a small stereo that he'd obviously brought up here and pressed play. _Music of the Night_ played from its speakers, and he held out his hand to me.

"Would you like to dance?" he asked.

"Yes," I said, not about to admit that I didn't really know how to dance, but once we found our rhythm, it wasn't so hard.

"You look amazing tonight, you know," he whispered in my ear.

"Thanks," I said. "But I'm just in jeans and a t-shirt."

"You don't need anything else," he said.

"Don't be sappy," I said, smiling.

"Is it sappy to tell the truth?"

"Depends on the truth being told," I said.

"Fair enough," he said, leaning in closer.

Then I did something I thought I'd never do: I let him kiss me. And again. And again. I couldn't help myself. It felt like a kind of jolt of heat rushing through my body. It felt _good_ to kiss him.

When we finally did break apart, I rested my head on his shoulder as he whispered/sang the lyrics of _Music of the Night_ to me.

_Suzanne_

For the first time in a long time, I felt relaxed. The sound of water filled the room from a nearby waterfall built into the wall. Strange lights made everything blue, and a weird projector made what looked like running water flow along the walls and everyone. I touched the wall for no reason, and discovered wherever I touched, a ripple formed, as if I really touched water. I reclined further in my leather chair and felt peace.

"What color do you think I should make my nails?" Victoria asked. "I mean, I want them to be a color I like, but I don't want it to clash with my clothes, and if it's too shiny, I won't be able to concentrate…"

"Paint them black," I said, hoping to shut her up.

"But black is _so_ not my color," Victoria protests.

"I think it'd look good on you," I said.

"Oh, well, if you say so," Victoria touched each one of her nails, making them black as she did so.

"Hmm, they look nice," she said when she was done.

"I told you," I said.

"TGSNF," Kherington said to Emilina.

"What does that mean?" Emilina gasped.

"This is so not fair," Kherington said.

"Are you trying to teach her text," I asked.

"Uh huh," Kherington said.

I shrugged.

"Ooh, is D-A-N-G text?" Emilina asked.

"No, that's just spelling," Kherington said.

"Oh. What about C-R-A-P?"

"Still spelling."

"Darn it."

I shook my head. I wasn't about to try and understand what went on in Emilina's mind.

"How long have we been here?" Victoria asked.

"I don't know, like two hours," I said.

"We should probably go, then," she said.

"No way, I'm comfy," I said.

"But it's boring here," she whined.

"You can go if you want to," I said. "But I'm staying here."

"Aww, c'mon, Suzanne," Victoria begged. "I don't wanna be by myself."

"I'll go with you," Caleb said, coming up to us.

I raised both eyebrows at her.

"I didn't know you were here," Victoria said to him.

"Yeah, Angie invited pretty much everyone," Caleb said.

"Is Luke with you?" I asked expectantly.

"I don't know, you tell me," Luke whispered in my ear from beside me.

"Oh, hi," I said, suddenly realizing he was there, and like I always did, I got lost in his eyes.

"We can go somewhere, Victoria," Caleb said.

"Okay," she said willingly, following Caleb out of the Sloth.

"Should I be worried?" I asked Luke.

"Nah, Caleb's pretty harmless," Luke said, grabbing a chair and sitting next to me.

"What does that make you?" I asked.

"Clearly dangerous," he said sarcastically.

"Clearly," I agreed, smirking.

"How've you been, Suzanne?"

"I read that Poe book," I said. "I've been meaning to give it back to you."

"Don't worry about it," he said. "But what'd you think of it?"

"I thought it was strange. Well, some of it, anyway. Like _The Fall of the House of Usher_. Who dreams up stuff like that?"

"Stephen King," Luke said.

"True, true," I laughed.

"Any other opinion?"

"I thought _Annabel Lee_ was beautiful," I said.

"Yes, I like that one, but I have to say that _The Raven_ is my favorite," Luke said.

"You guys aren't seriously talking about books," Emilina cried.

"Yes, we are," I said.

"You're boring," Kherington said. "C'mon, Emilina, let's go someplace else."

"Yeah," Emilina said.

Once they left, I said, "sorry about them."

"You can't control what they do," he said.

"Yeah, but they were kind of rude."

"To you, not to me."

I smiled, "So, what other Poe books do you like?"

_Rosalyn_

I felt so strange. My head was cloudy, and I felt like the things I said weren't my words. I was stumbling around, and I felt like I had no control. And all the while, I loved it.

I drank from my glass of wine, and spun around.

"I'm having so much fun," I said to Ravyn, who was laughing.

"Yeah. Rozzy, how many glasses did you drink?"

"Only one," I said, giggling uncontrollably.

"Are you sure?"

"I think I would remember drinking more than one glass," I said.

Ravyn didn't look convinced.

I spun around some more, "I feel so hyper."

"Whoa, take it easy," L said when I accidently fell into him, making him fall into a chair.

I giggled, "Did I ever tell you how hot you look from this angle?"

"No, I don't think you did," he said, looking a bit afraid.

"Don't look like that," I said, repositioning myself so I was straddling his legs.

"I don't think I've ever been this close to you before," I said, stroking his hair, and to my surprise, he let me.

"I don't think so."

"Can I come closer?" I asked slyly.

"I don't know…" but I would let him finish. I locked my lips with his, and I felt him melt with me, releasing the emotions we've felt toward each other for a long time. I held his face in between my hands while wrapped his arms around my waist and held me closer. Needless to say, I never wanted it to end.

_Nicole_

Dancing with Tristan made me feel alive. It'd been so long since I'd even wanted to dance the way I did, and just knowing that I was letting myself go made me feel better. When we stopped to kiss, that was even better.

"You know, it's my birthday," I said after kissing Tristan once.

"So I've noticed," he said, smiling.

"And because it's my birthday, I think I get a say in where to go from here."

"Where would you like to go?" he asked.

I looked toward Lust, the doors seeming to pull me in. I looked back at him and said, "I'll give you one guess."

Kissing me was his response. He took my hand and led me to Lust's double doors. Entering was like another world. It was a long hallway with red walls and doors on either side. We walked down until we saw a door that was open, and went inside. The rooms were very well decorated in shades of red and pink (even though I hate pink), and a beautiful chandelier with crystals engraved.

And I didn't know why, but I was suddenly nervous. My hear was pounding 100 miles an hour, and I'm sure Tristan thought I looked scared.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" he asked, taking my hand.

"I'm in no rush."

"My mind is ready," I said. "But my heart thinks I'm trying to run a marathon."

"We don't have to," he said.

"Do you want to?" I asked. "And be honest."  
"Yes I do," he said.

""Why?" I asked.

"Because," he said. "I think I love you."

I smiled.

"Do you want to?" he asked.

"Yes," I said.

"Why?" he asked, quoting me.

"Because I think I love you," I answered. It wasn't just to quote him, I really felt that way.

"Don't think I'm lying to you," he said, taking my other hand.

"I know you're not lying," I said. I could feel his emotions, and he most definitely wasn't lying. "This is a big step for me."

"Me too," he said.

"I don't wanna turn back now," I said, looking into his eyes.

"Neither do I," he said.

That was the deciding factor. He crushed his lips to mine, our fingers getting tangled together. He walked be backwards and I felt myself falling onto the bed with him on top of me. Though the fall broke our kissing, it was only for a moment. I tugged at his shirt, looking for buttons that I couldn't find. I realized that his shirt was a pullover, so I started pulling from the bottom, which was easier said than done, so he helped me out by pulling it over his head himself and tossing it to the ground. I touched along the contours of his chest, feeling every muscle and scar. He tangled his fingers in my hair, and murmured, "I love you."

"I love you," I said back, holding him closer to me.

His fingers gripped the straps of my cocktail dress, and pulled them down. I was about to help him by pulling down my dress completely when I heard a voice in my head, _NICOLE!_

I jerked up from the bed.

"What's the matter?" Tristan asked. "Did I do something wrong?"

"No, no," I assured him. "But I think I hear Ravyn's voice in my head."

_What? _I thought, thinking it was crazy.

_Get your ass in the lobby NOW!_ Ravyn thought back. So I wasn't just imagining it.

"What's going on?" Tristan asked.

_We need to go home_, Ravyn said.

_Wait, how the hell are you talking to me in my head_, I thought.

_Never mind, just get your ass out here_, Ravyn thought.

"Nicole, what's going on?" Tristan asked again.

"I have to go," I said. "Apparently, it's an emergency."

"Is that mind talking thing another power you guys discovered?" Tristan asked.

"Just now, yeah," I said. "I have to go to the lobby."

"Let's get you there, then," Tristan said, opening the doors for me on the way to the lobby. I couldn't help but feel sad that we didn't get to have sex after we wanted to, but I knew there would be other opportunities.

In the lobby, Ravyn was pacing, Wolfgang and Tamora were trying to steady a very tipsy Rosalyn, Suzanne and Victoria looked horrified at Rosalyn, and Emilina and Kherington were talking about something stupid.

"What's going on?" I asked, immediately taking charge.

"We gotta go," Ravyn said. "Rozzy's fucking hammered."

"Shame," Victoria said.

I looked to Rosalyn, who was now leaning against L, who was doing his best to keep her upright.

"Oh no," I said, going over to her. "How did you get drunk?"

"I don't know," she slurred back. "I only had…one glass of wine."

"It's true, I was with her the whole night," L said.

"Angie put something in her drink," Ravyn said.

"And you didn't bother to _warn_ her?" I asked.

"I wanted to see what kind of drunk she'd be. Apparently, it's the crazy kind who makes out with L for a half-hour straight."

L blushed.

"I'll deal with you later," I said to Ravyn. "But now, let's just get Rosalyn home."

I took Rosalyn from L, and led her to the door.

"We'll see you guys tomorrow," I called to the guys. "Sisters, c'mon. We gotta go."

Everyone followed me out the door unwillingly, and we piled into the Odyssey. Everyone agreed that it would be best if Rosalyn got a window seat, and they all arranged themselves.

I put the car in drive, and headed toward Hogwarts.

"I'm gonna fucking kill Angie," I said, not mad at Ravyn anymore, although she could've warned her sister.

"Shame," Victoria said.

"Don't get on my nerves tonight, Victoria. I swear to go I'll smack you," I warned.

"You don't even believe in God," Victoria countered back.

"I know," I said. "That's how sure I am that I'd smack the shit out of you."

Victoria didn't say anything, but I could feel her disgust.

"That was fun," Ravyn said.

"Yeah, until you mind called me when I was about to have sex," I said.

"Really?" Ravyn and even Rosalyn asked.

"Yep," I said. "But we didn't get to go all the way."

"Too bad," Rosalyn said.

"Yeah," I said.

"Wait, you were about to have sex?" Victoria asked.

"I just said that," I said. "And you're pissing me off."

"Okay, I'll shut up."

"Thank you." That was the last word anyone said on the rest of the ride to Hogwarts.


End file.
